Delusional Modsouls
by Netsu Miji
Summary: Ichigo and Nozomi have finally married after Inaba was killed. But unbeknownst to them, there are some people that could never believe that a person could love a modsoul, and are willing to kill to prove themselves right. Will they murder Ichigo for the wrong reasons, or will they come to see the world in a different way and spare the bloodshed of soul reapers and modsouls alike.
1. Confirmation

Ichigo opened his eyes and they were met by the morning sunlight. He looked out the window to see the sun, and two small birds flying by. He smiled and turned his head to the small, green-haired woman lying next to him. She wore nothing but her bra and panties. He put his right arm around her waist and pulled her closer. He put his left arm under her, his right arm still around her waist. She tiredly opened her eyes and put her hand over his.

She looked him in th eye and smiled "Good morning, dear." Nozomi said to her new husband, smiling as his silly face. She turned herself around and wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned closer to him and met his lips with hers. They broke the kiss and kissed again, more deeply and passionately. Ichigo put his hand on the back of her head and pushed her closer. They kissed again and again, Ichigo eventually reaching behind her and unhooking Nozomi's bra.

"Hey!" said Nozomi who went wide-eyed and slapped Ichigo in his cheek. He let go of her bra and put a hand to the side of his face. "What are you doing?" she asked blushing. Ichigo sat up, his hand still on his cheek and blushing, "I...I'm sorry. I... I guess I... uh... got caught up... in the moment." Ichigo stuttered as he scratched the back of his head. Nozomi gave a small smile, "Don't worry, its fine." she said still blushing.

She looked at Ichigo's face and noticed a stream of blood flowing from his nose, "Oh, Ichigo, your nose is bleeding!" she said searching for a tissue. Ichigo had a deep blush as he watched her search. She was bent down as she searched through the bedside drawer, giving him a perfect view of her ass. He blushed even deeper and he blood flowed from his nose even faster.

Nozomi turned back around and cleaned the blood off of his face. Ichigo turned his head away and looked away from her, though he glanced back down at her every now and then. Nozomi moved to help herself clean the blood, only for him to move his head again, "Ichigo, will you stop fussing!?" she whined as she moved again. Ichigo moved his head again, "Nozomi, you might want to look down." Ichigo said weakly. "What are you talking abo-" she gasped as she realized that she never rehooked her bra and her breasts were almost completely visible. She put her arm across her chest and reached back to rehook her bra.

She finished hooking her bra and looked back up at Ichigo, still blushing from how much of her he just saw. Nozomi looked around awkwardly and began giggling. Ichigo looked confused as she laughed at nothing, he couldn't help but laugh with her. They laughed at the awkward atmosphere after what had just happened to them both. Nozomi looked at the clock on the nightstand, it read 7:30 A.M.

Nozomi looked back at Ichigo, "You know today is the last day of our honeymoon. We can do anything we want today." she said wrapping her arms around her legs. Ichigo sat and thought of what they could do together. Nozomi sat and thought for a moment, only to find she couldn't think of anything. She looked up and saw Ichigo's strange grin along with him blushing like he just did when he, you know. Nozomi suddenly realized what he was thinking, "I know what you're thinking you pervert!" she almost yelled.

Ichigo threw his hands up in mock surrender, "Alright, alright, we'll think of something else." he said still blushing.

Nozomi stood up and walked to the closet and opened it. She searched it for her a suitable outfit, and pulled out a pair of blue jeans and a tan shirt and walked back to the bed to put them on.

Ichigo looked at her confusedly, "What are you doing? We don't even know what we're going to do yet." he complained. Nozomi looked over to him, "I decided that we're going to visit you're family." she said as she pulled her shirt down over her head. Ichigo looked over to her quicker than bullet, "What!? I never agreed to that! I don't wanna visit my dad!" he yelled frantically. Nozomi simply giggled at his panicking composure, "We're not going to visit your dad, we're going to visit your sisters and maybe some of our friends afterward." she said simply.

Ichigo sighed in defeat and walked to the closet to retreive some of his own clothes, "Yeah, Yuzu and Karin beat my dad any day. Plus we haven't seen any of our friends since the wedding, so I guess I'll come too." he said as he pulled out a pair of jeans and a black shirt. He walked back to the bed and opened the nightstand. Nozomi raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side in interest, he pulled out a small pocket knife, "What do you need that for?" she asked. He looked back at her, "You can never be too safe in this town. And I don't think any of our friends will be in Karakura." he said pulling out Kon.

Nozomi walked out of the room and looked over to Ichigo, "I'll meet you at the door." she said as she disappeared.

-moments later-

Ichigo walked to the door to meet Nozomi. He thought of her reaction to what he accidently tried. It had happened more than once, even before they married. In his mind, he knew it was only a matter of time. Ichigo saw Nozomi sitting on a small chair next to the door. He stopped to wait for her to stand and opened the door. They walked outside and began thier trip on the sidewalk.

After they had walked for about twenty minutes Nozomi started running down the sidewalk, "Hey, where are you going?" Ichigo yelled as she ran, "I bet I can make it to your dad's house first!" she yelled back at him. Ichigo grinned and his eye twitched, "Oh you're on!" he said to himself as he began running in a sprint to catch up with her. They ran until they were covered head to toe in sweat. He finally caught up to her, just in time to catch site of his house.

They both started running as fast as they possibly could. They made it to the side walk to the door and dived for the door. Ichigo knocked on the door first and fell to the ground. He raised his fist and brought it down, "Yes!" he said as Nozomi rolled her eyes, though she thought his childish cheering was funny.

The door opened and revealed Yuzu standing behind it. She gasped and hugged her older brother, "Ichigo!". Karin looked back at them from the couch and jumped up to hug him too, "Hey guys, where's dad?" he asked dropping his cheerful tone after the last part, Nozomi simply smiled as they hugged. "He's not home right now." Yuzu responded, "Thank god, I didn't want to put up with him anyway." Ichigo said, his cheerful tone returning. He walked into the living room and sat down in the couch.

"Ichigo!" yelled a familiar voice from behind that caused Ichigo to jump out of the couch. He turned around and saw that Rukia was behind the couch. "Rukia? What the hell are you doing here?" he asked grimacing at her for scaring him. "I rented out your room from your dad." she said cheerfully, smiling. "Huh... Oh shit, you didn't cover it in a bunch of chappy bunnies did you?!" he practically yelled at her.

"Nope, I left it just the way it was when you left." she said turning to look at Nozomi, "Nozomi, its been so long, has Ichigo bee treating you right? Did he hurt you? I'll kick his ass of he did!" she yelled with fire in her eyes, Nozomi simply giggling as she watched the quickly changing expressions on the raven-haired woman. "No, he's treated me just as kindly as he did before we married." she answered.

"Good, I don't think I could kick his ass anyway." Rukia said hanging her head. Suddenly Yuzu stood up, "Ichigo! Could you stay the night tonight?! It's not normal for us to not wake up with you at breakfast." she said, her voice saddening at the last part.

"Oh... Uh... Well." Ichigo said, thinking of the other plans he and Nozomi had for the day. Nozomi leaned near his ear and whispered, "We could visit everyone tomorrow, and I think It would be a great idea to stay here for tonight." he looked at her and nodded "Okay, we'll stay for the night." he said as he smiled to his little sister, "YAY! It'll be just like old times!" cheered throwing her arms up in the air, Ichigo and Nozomi laughed.

For the rest of the day they all talked about what had gone on while Ichigo and his wife were gone, Rukia of course rented out Ichigo's room, Yuzu didn't do much anything other than clean, Karin started dating Toshiro Hitsuguya, and Isshin finally took down his Masaki poster, "Its about damn time, that thing was creepy!" Ichigo said happily.

At 8:00PM Isshin finally came home and attempted to kick Ichigo in the face as soon as he saw him, only to be met with a fist to the mouth, "I haven't seen you in 4 weeks and this is how you greet me son?!" he complained as he lied in the ground, "Oh bullshit, you attacked me first!" Ichigo yelled in anger, his eye twitching as he kicked his dad in the head. Nozomi stood near Isshin, "Hello, ." she said politely. Isshin looked up at her and smiled, "Haven't I told you before Nozomi? Call me Isshin." he said.

Near midnight Ichigo and Nozomi decided to turn in. "Where are you gonna sleep?" Yuzu asked, "I don't know, the couch I guess." Ichigo said in response, "Nonsense, you can sleep in your old room, I'll sleep on the couch." Rukia offered, smiling, "Oh, really? Thanks", "No problem."

Nozomi opened the door to Ichigo's room, who followed close behind. They took in the sight, all of it had been the same since he moved out. They walked over to the bed and realized just how small it is. "No problem, we could just cuddle." Nozomi said. They both prepared for bed and lied down, Ichigo wrapping his arms around her small body. They could hear the others going to their bedrooms. "Goodnight." Ichigo said as he closed his eyes.

But Nozomi couldn't help but feel anxious. It was the last day of their honeymoon, and it may be the last chance they have for months. "Ichigo.", "Hmm?" Ichigo opened his eyes to meet his wifes', "I want to have a child." she said. Ichigo wasn't too surprised, she had told hom that before. But this time he had a feeling she meant something else, "What do you mean?", "I mean that I want to take the first step to do so." she said blushing. Ichigo's eyes went wide, "Uh... are you sure?", "Yes." she said as she kissed him and began tugging on his shirt.

He unbuttoned her shirt as they kissed and pulled it off. She began undoing his pants and removed them, along with his boxers. She quickly removed her own clothes and blushed as she looked down at Ichigo's hardening member and his strong body, getting wetter and wetter as she stared. Ichigo lined his member up with her vagina and began pushing it in, causing Nozomi to moan and whimper in pleasure.

He managed to get his entire length in her and slowly pulled out and thrusted back in again, causing Nozomi to moan loudly and put her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't alert the others. Ichigo gently suckled her sensitive nipple and massaged her breast causing muffled moans to slip past her hand. He himself let out gasps and moans, trying to hold them back.

Nozomi flipped them over and rode him, causing her breasts to bounce. Ichigo let out another gasp, "I'm... cumming!" he almost yelled, "Me too!" Nozomi said as they both came at the same time, Nozomi and Ichigo breathing heavily and sweating. Ichigo began thrusting into her again, "Maybe we should go again, just to be sure." he said nervously. "Yes, maybe we should she said as he thrust into her.

-Just outside of Ichigo's room window-

The man stood hidden in the trees as he confirmed Ichigo and Nozomi's actions, "So father was right, he did use her for his own pleasure after all. I need to report back to him." he said as he vanished into a dangai.

-In an unknown location in the seiretei-

The man walked up to his father from the inside of labrynth of caves and stopped behind him atop the mountain. "Ah, Shizuno. What information do you have for me?" his father asked turning around to face him. "You were right father. Ichigo Kurosaki has used Nozomi Kujo for his own personal pleasures." he reported to the white-haired man, "I knew it. I knew that no soul reaper nor human could actually love a modsoul. We're nothing but useful pawns to them, they use us in any way they want and dispose of us after they're done." he said grimacing and looking over the soul society from the high point on the mountain, Shizuno hanging his head knowing just how right his father was.

"Shizuno.", "Yes father?" he said snapping back to reality, "Get Ijana and have him devise a plan. We're rescuing Nozomi and terminating that lying bastard, Ichigo!" he commanded and walked past his son and into the caves. "Yes father." he said following the white-haired man. As Shizuno followed, he thought to himself_ "It makes me sick to think that someone would go through all this trouble just to fool one of us"_

Before you start thinking that Ichigo is using Nozomi, let me explain a little. This little group of OC's that will be introduced throughout the story have, after a lifetime of being depicted as defected and disposable, have been convince that no person, human or soul, could actually care for a modsoul like them. More to come soon!


	2. The Modsoul's View

"Ichigo! Ichigo! Nozomi! Come on wake up!" Rukia yelled cheerfully as she knocked on Ichigo's bedroom door. She finally got tired of knocking and opened the door, "Ugh, come on guys, wake-" she was cut off by the smell of sex in the air and the sight of both of them lying naked in the bed. She blushed a dark red and could hear Ichigo's dad coming up the stairs "ICHIGO!" he yelled insanely as he ran for the door.

Rukia quickly closed the door and put her back to it "Don't go in there !" she yelled stopping him at the door, "Why not?" he asked with a confused look on is face "I'll just say that they stayed up a bit later than we thought." she said in response and walkd past him. Isshin simply stood there and scratched his chin, thinking of what that might mean. He shrugged the question off and walked back down stairs with her.

They both sat down for breakfast, Rukia staying abnormally quiet after what she saw. Yuzu looked at the empty spaces where Ichigo and Nozomi were supposed to sit, "Hey, where are Ichigo and Nozomi?" she asked looking at Rukia. She blushed as she turned to look at Ichigo's younger sister, "They're... uhh... sleeping in... I guess." she said as she struggled to make an excuse. Yuzu put back her usual smiling face, "Ohh, okay." she said simply and continued to make breakfast, allowing Rukia a sigh of relief. Karin leaned over to her, "They did it last night didn't they?" she said, causing Rukia to go wide-eyed, "What? No, of course not. Yes." she blurted out. Everyone in the room went silent, all staring at Rukia, "Yes, I believe they did. I don't think we should mention that we know about them though." she said.

Suddenly they heard noises from upstairs, "Quick, everybody SHUT UP!" Rukia yelled. A few minutes later, Ichigo and Nozomi came down the stairs, both of their hair was messed up and sticking all over the place. "Good morning." they all said awkwardly, "Good morning everyone." Nozomi said in response, Ichigo simply waved. They took their seats and noticed that everyone was awkwardly quiet. Even Yuzu was quiet as she gave everyone their food. "Why is everyone so quiet?" Ichigo asked, "Oh, no reason." Rukia answered him, taking a bite of her food. Ichigo and Nozomi glanced at each other, and Ichigo shrugged.

-4 hours later-

"Goodbye, see you next time!" everyone shouted as Ichigo and Nozomi left for the soul society. Ichigo opened the dangai and they began walking in, "Wait for me!" they heard suddenly. They turned around and saw Rukia running up behind them, "What is it?" Nozomi asked as Rukia caught up to them, "I'm coming with you. You know, so I can see my brother." she said in response to Nozomi. "Sure thing. Let's go." Ichigo said as they continued to walk into the dangai.

-In the catacombs in the mountain-

Shizuno walked through the torch-lit halls of the mountain. He walked into a room with a dim green glow from a floating orb on the ceiling. He looked over to the short purple-haired man sleeping in a chair and resting his head on a table. Shizuno gave an annoyed sigh and walked up to him, "Ijana. Ijana! Wake-up dammit!" he said pulling on Ijana's long hair and dropping his head on the table, "Ow! What do want?!" he yelled at Shizuno. "Father told you to find the best way to rescue Nozomi and rid her of Ichigo Kurosaki." he Shizuno scolded as Ijana rubbed his forehead.

"You know Ozan's not really your father right?" Ijana asked, still rubbing his forehead, "Yeah. But he raised me as if I were his own son, so I respect him like a father." Shizuno said as he thought back to when he was saved by Ozan.

-Flash Back-

The young boy was running in fear as three soul reapers were chasing him. He couldn't fight anymore, he was already too beat up and badly wounded. He would fight if he could, but he had a broken arm and a wide cut on his stomach. He ran and ran as he lost more blood with each step. He stumbled and fell to the ground, allowing the soul reapers to catch up and surround him.

He began sweating as he thought of his impending doom. "We got you now, modsoul!" one of the soul reapers yelled as he rose his blade, his eyes locked on the boy. "Do it then. Just get it over with!" the boy yelled at him. The soul reaper grinned, "Alright, I'll make it quick and painl-" he said, being cut off by a blade that burst from his chest.

His blood covered the ground in front of him as he fell to the ground, revealing a tall white-haired man holding a sword and wearing a black suit. The other two soul reapers looked at the man in surprise and charged at him. The white-haired man sliced the head off of the soul reaper to the left and wrapped his hand around the throat of the other one.

The soul reaper gagged and squirmed, trying to take the man's hand off of his throat. He tightened his grip and crushed the soul reaper's throat, and dropped him to the ground. The young boy backed away and stared at the tall man, "It's okay. Your safe now." the man said as he spotted the wound on the boy's stomach, "Let me see." he said, the boy moved his hand and revealed a 7-inch cut. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of purple liquid.

He opened the bottle and poured it on the boy's wound, causing him to wince in pain. The wound began to heal quickly and stopped bleeding. "I'm Ozan, what's your name?" the man asked as he poured the liquid onto the boy's arm, "My name is Shizuno." the boy responded. "Well Shizuno, you seem capable, but not as strong as you can be. What do you say, you come with me?" Ozan asked holding out his hand.

Shizuno looked at the man's hand. He thought for a minute, remembering how helpless he was mere moments ago. He hesitated and took the man's hand and stood up, "Good. Now follow me. We don't need any more soul reapers coming along, do we?" Ozan said as he walked away from the walls of the soul society. Shizuno stood for a moment and thought of what kind of life he just started for himself.

-End Flash Back-

"Shizuno!" Ijana said snapping his fingers infront of Shizuno's face, causing him to snap out of his temporary trance. "You okay?" Ijana asked looking up at the green-haired man, "Yeah... Now back to business, get to work on the plan idiot." Shizuno responded walking out of the room. Ijana simply rolled his eyes and went back to his board.

-At the center of the soul society-

Shizuno walked along the streets of the soul society, walking down the familiar path he once ran along with three soul reapers on his tail. Luckily no one seemed to suspect he was a modsoul. Suddenly he heard growling coming from his stomach, "I need to get something to eat." he said to himself searching his pockets, "Damn, no money." he said. He walked up behind a group of people and reached into a soul reaper's pocket and pulled out some cash.

He counted the money as he walked around the corner. He could hear the soul reapers that he just left arguing about stolen money, causing him to giggle as he walked into a store. He grabbed a chocolate bar and walked to the register. He put the chocolate bar on the counter and looked out the window. He saw a short green-haired woman with tan clothes on, which he suddenly realized,_ "That's Nozomi!" _he thought to himself as he put the cash on the counter and took his chocolate bar. He ran to catch up with her, and tapped on her shoulder and she turned around.

"Yes?" she asked politely, catching him off guard somehow, "Huh? Oh, I'm Shizuno Kanez, and I believe you are Nozomi Kujo, correct?" he said putting his hand out. "Yes, that's right. Although, now its Kurosaki." she corrected as she shook his hand. "So Shizuno,where are you going?" she asked. "Nowhere right now." he responded following Nozomi, "Where are_ you_ going?" he countered, "I'm going to the store to buy some things. You can come along if you want." she offered as they continued walking, "What kind of things are you buying?" he asked, "Oh, just a pregnancy test or two." she said blushing. "D'your husband knock you up?" Shizuno said, causing Nozomi to frown at him, "That's a more inappropriate term for it." she said, Shizuno scowled, "Oh, uh sorry." he apologized.

"Your a modsoul too aren't you?" Nozomi asked suddenly, though Shizuno wasn't too surprised, "Yeah." he said plainly. They reached the store and Shizuno looked up into the sky. It wasn't getting dark, and he didn't want Ozan to get worried and come looking for him. "Well, I have to get going now. But before I go, a piece of advice, don't trust your husband.", "Why not?" Nozomi asked worriedly. "Because no one but a modsoul could truly care about a modsoul." Shizuno said.

"If a person is willing to give their life just to make sure you can take another breath, do you not consider that caring?" Nozomi countered him, "Because that's Ichigo to me, and he's not a modsoul. He's a human, a human who gave up his normal life so he could protect those he cares about." she finished. "Whatever" Shizuno said as he continued to walk away. He couldn't help but feel sorry that they would have to kill a man that she cares so much about, and deceives her so cruely.

Please review. Seriously, this is like my only story that doesn't have any reviews so far.

I hope this helped you gain more of an insight of how Shizuno feels about the soul reapers and Ozan.


	3. Heart from Hell

Nozomi sat on the bed staring, waiting for her results from the pregnancy test. She was getting anxious and began tapping her foot. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ichigo and Nozomi had rented a room from a small apartment building in the soul society. "Come in." she said as the door opened, revealing Ichigo and Rukia behind it.

"Hi, honey. Hi, Rukia" she said quickly, looking back down at the pregnancy test as the two sat on either side of her. They noticed the pregnancy test in her hand and they both leaned to get a closer look. They waited and waited, until finally a pink positive showed up.

Everyone went wide-eyed and cheered. Rukia almost screamed and Nozomi and Ichigo hugged and kissed. "I've gotta go tell everyone!" Rukia said running out the door. Nozomi tried to hold back tears in her eyes, which Ichigo noticed.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly as the tears ran down her cheeks.

"Nothing, I'm just so happy!" she said, wiping the tears off of her face.

They embraced and kissed as a certain someone stood watching outside the window.

-outside the window-

Shizuno stood in the tree with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, _"Dammit. That bastard got her pregnant!" _he thought to himself as he began gritting his teeth in anger and headed back to the mountain.

Isane Kotetsu walked down the streets and saw the man standing in the tree at the window. He jumped out of the tree and ran down the street in the direction of the Sereitei forest, _"He doesn't look like a soul reaper, he looks suspicious. Maybe I should investigate." _she thought to herself as she ran after him.

-back to Ichigo, 2 hours later-

Ichigo and Nozomi walked through the soul society on their way to visit everyone they knew. They recieved congratulations from people around town, "Damn, Rukia knows how to spread the word." Ichigo said after the hundredth 'congrats' they got. Most of these people they didn't even know.

They reached the door to Byakuya's quarters, which appearently ended up as the meeting spot according to Rukia, and opened the door. Renji, Rukia, Byakuya, Shuhei, Izuru, Momo, Rangiku, and Toshiro. They were instantly bombarded by greetings and congrats from everyone there, except for Byakuya, who simply kept his usual calm attitude.

"Congradulations on the pregnancy!" Renji said to his freind. He didn't think that Ichigo would beat him to the punch. _"Damn. I owe Shuhei SO much money."_

Suddenly Yachiru came out of nowhere, "YAY! Now there's gonna be a little Ichy running around soon!" she cheered, causing everyone to laugh, and even Byakuya to giggle.

"I heard that!" Rukia said pointing at Byakuya.

"Heard what?" he asked in surprisedly

"You know what I heard, you were giggling! You were giggling at Yachiru!" Rukia accused, Byakuya simply stood there and remained silent, "Don't ignore me! Admit it, you DO have a sense of humor!" she continued to accuse.

-In the Sereitei Forest-

Shizuno made it halfway through the forest to get to the mountain. He stopped to take a rest on a tree, "Almost there... Just a little further." he said to himself as he panted. Suddenly a silver-haired woman appeared from the trail he had came from,_ "Shit, I was followed."_

She walked infront of him with her sword drawn, "Who are you and what business do you have with the soul society?" she questioned. She carefully studied the man. _"Green hair, yellow eyes, no zanpakuto. He's not a soul reaper, but he's not a normal soul either. Could he be..."_

As if reading her mind, Shizuno answered her, "Yeah, that's right. I'm a modsoul." he said as he stood up and slowly began circling Isane.

Her eyes were wide as she was told the facts, "S... So you're a m... modsoul. Well I'm sorry, but as a soul reaper it is my duty to eliminate rogue modsouls." she said sweating lightly. Her words didn't please Shizuno all to well.

His eyes went wide, "Then you're just like all the rest!" he yelled as he lunged at her and punched her in the stomach, sending her flying into a tree, "You say its your job to kill us, but you never give a shit about how we felt as we watched all of our freinds die right in front of our eyes!" he screamed as he slammed her into the tree again, "You think you're getting somewhere by killing us off, or think that you're cleaning up the remains of a failed experiment, we're nothing to you but TRASH!" he yelled as he delivered a final strong knee to her chest, causing her to cough up blood and fall on her side.

She let out small whimpers of pain as Shizuno stood there panting. He saw nothing but red and began kicking her body, delivering sharp blows to her chest and stomach, forcing more blood to spew out of her mouth. Suddenly a woman with short red spiky hair and wearing black leather pants and shirt with red highlights in the collar and sleeves appeared and put him in a full nelson and pulled him back, "Shizuno, stop!" she yelled as Shizuno struggled to keep attacking Isane.

Shizuno finally stopped and settled down. The woman let him go and walked in front of him, "It's okay. We all know how it felt." she said as she hugged him. Tears formed in his eyes and ran down his cheeks as he thought of all of his freinds dying.

Shizuno quickly straightened himself out and hugged her back, "Thanks, Zenas" he said to her. They let go of each other and continued down the path, leaving Isane on the ground.

Isane lied there and thought of what he said, _"We watched all of our freinds die right in front of our eyes! You think you're getting somewhere by killing us off. Cleaning up the remains of a failed experiment. We're nothing to you but TRASH!"_ those words echoed in her head as she thought of the girl and the man.

"What have we done?"

-the next day-

"So where are we going again?" Nozomi asked as Ichigo guided her to their destination with his hand over her eyes.

"I told you, its a surprise." he said as they reached their destination. Ichigo moved his hand and revealed they were on the top of Sogyoku hill. She could see the entire soul society.

"Wow." she said in amazement. She had never had such an amazing view of anything (Save for "that one night")

Suddenly a hand landed on Ichigo's shoulder, "Hello, Ichigo." Kenpachi said, causing Ichigo to jump out of his skin.

"Aaah! Kenpachi, this isn't the best time for a fight!" Ichigo said as he turned around.

"Huh? No, I'm just here to congradulate you on your child. Who knows, maybe when they get older I can fight them." Kenpachi said imagining what Ichigo's kid could look like.

"You are not fighting my child." Ichigo said frowning at Kenpachi.

Suddenly Rukia ran up to Ichigo from behind Kenpachi, "Ichigo! Nozomi! Come quick!" she yelled frantically

"Why? What's wrong?" Nozomi asked worriedly.

"Isane was found in the forest beaten badly. She asked to talk to Nozomi." Rukia answered. Ichigo and Nozomi quickly followed as Rukia ran down the hill.

-Squad 4 Barracks-

Ichigo and Nozomi walked into the room and saw the silver-haired man in the bed covered with bruises and blood, "Oh dear, Isane, are you okay?" Nozomi asked looking down at the bruised woman.

"I'm fine, I'll be okay. But I wanted to ask you something." Isane responded.

"What is it?" Nozomi asked, still looking at the bloodied clothes of the woman.

"I was attacked by a man who claimed to be a modsoul. He said that we soul reapers are all the same, killing off modsouls as if we're cleaning the remains of a failed experiment, an not giving a second thought to how they feel about their friends we've killed. So I ask you, do you think of us in such a way, thinking we don't care about you're lives?" Isane asked in a sad and sorrowful voice.

Nozomi hesitated to answer and hung her head, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of you in that way for a time. But Ichigo, Rukia, all of my friends have showed me that soul reapers can care for us and even be willing to die for us. So no, I no longer think of you in such a way." she answered, smiling.

"Thank you, that's all I needed to hear." Isane said as she fell into a peaceful slumber.

-20 minutes later-

Ichigo and Nozomi left the Squad 4 Barracks after Isane's question. Nozomi turned around and looked at Ichigo, "Ichigo. The man that hurt Isane. I think I know who did it." she said.

"What? Really? Who was it?" Ichigo asked excitedly.

"A man that had short green hair and yellow eyes. He said his name was Shizuno." She said quietly.

Suddenly Shizuno, a man with long, purple hair, and a woman with red hair dropped from the nearby rooftops. Nozomi gasped at the sight of Shizuno and backed toward Ichigo.

"Nozomi. You have to come with us." Shizuno said stepping toward them, Ichigo stepped in front of her and drew his zanpakuto.

"Zenas, Ijana, take Nozomi. I'll handle Ichigo." Shizuno said. Ichigo heightened his guard and prepared for the two modsouls.

"You'll have to get past me first." Ichigo said pointing his blade at them.

Shizuno swiped his arm across the air causing Zenas and Ijana vanish and appear behind Ichigo. They grabbed Nozomi and vanished again with her, Ichigo tried to grab them, but it was too late. He turned to Shizuno and dashed at him, "Where have they gone too?" He yelled.

"Izukazi azu!" Shizuno yelled, causing Ichigo to be forced to the ground on his hands and knees.

"Dammit, what the hell is this?" Ichigo yelled as he tried to stand.

"Izukazi azu, similar to kido number one, only stronger." Shizuno said as he walked toward Ichigo and picked up his zanpakuto, "I guess its time to make sure you never use her again." he said as he raised the sword and aimed for Ichigo's neck.

He grinned sadistically and brought the blade down on Ichigo's neck.

Ichigo's blood flowed in the streets and soaked into the dirt.


	4. Blood on the Blade

"What the hell?! You're not supposed to be able to move! How did you...?" Shizuno said as he stared at the blade that was caught in Ichigo's hand. It had cut his palm and the blood leaked onto the ground and trickled down the blade.

"I'll ask you again, where did they take her?!" Ichigo yelled as he pushed the blade away from him and stood up, shaking from the resistance of the spell.

Shizuno glared at him with dagger eyes, gritting his teeth as he tried to hide his fear, _"How is this possible? No one's ever been able to resist izakazu azu before, let alone straight up defy it." _he thought to himself, "What the hell are you?" Shizuno asked in a shaky voice.

"I'm a man who cares about his wife's safety! Now where is she?!" he said gripping Shizuno's throat and pushing him up against the wall, choking the man. Shizuno struggled and managed to loosen Ichigo's grip.

"Sorry, but I can't tell you that." he said kicking Ichigo off of him, "I'll give you a choice, either you can forget about her and leave us alone and live, or try and get her back and die." he said as he rubbed his throat and stumbled trying to regain his balance.

"I'd rather die to keep her safe than sit back and do nothing!" Ichigo said as he picked up his zanpakuto and charged at Shizuno.

"Wha...?" Shizuno said getting cut off by Ichigo ramming him into the wall and swinging the sword at him. He managed to catch it between his hands and kicked Ichigo in the knee, causing him to stumble slightly. Shizuno took the advantage to head-butt Ichigo and caused a nose bleed. He pulled out a knife and swung it at Ichigo's chest, only for his wrist to be caught by Ichigo.

Ichigo brought the sword down and slashed Shizuno's chest. It left a large cut that gave Shizuno a blast from the past. Shizuno simply ran his finger along the cut and licked the blood off it. "Stop this fighting!" someone said out of nowhere. The two men turned in the dirction of the voice and saw Retsu Unohana and five other soul reapers standing just outside of the Squad 4 Barracks doorway. Suddenly Ichigo grabbed Shizuno's windpipe and squeezed it closed slowly. Shizuno kicked his legs and grabbed Ichigo's arm, he looked down and saw Ichigo's eyes. They were pitch black with yellow irises.

Unohana and two other soul reapers tried to force Ichigo to release Shizuno. "Ichigo, please let go." Unohana begged. Ichigo obeyed and dropped Shizuno on the ground, the two soul reapers took hold of Shizuno's arms and tied them behind his back. They took him into the Barracks and into Isane Kotetsu's hospital room.

"Luitenant Kotetsu, is this the man who assaulted you?" one of the soul reapers asked as Isane wearily turned her head toward Shizuno.

Her eyes went wide as she gazed at the green-haired man, "Y...yes." she answered after a brief moment of silence. Shizuno looked down at her, blood flowing out of the sides of his mouth. He felt bad for what he had done, looking down at her bruised and bloodied body.

The soul reapers proceeded to take him to the soul society prison.

-Soul society prison-

The soul reapers threw Shizuno into the cell and closed the door, "You'll be staying here for a while before..." the soul reaper said, interrupted by Ichigo walking in and standing infront of the cell.

He glared at Shizuno and leaned against the door, "I'll ask you one last time, where are they taking her?" he said, his voice shaking as he held back his rage.

"Its not my place to tell anyone." Shizuno answered sitting down in the center of the room, "You know they'll be back to rescue me right?" he said looking down at the floor.

"Yeah. I know."

-3 hours later, in the caved mountain-

"Will you stop struggling?! We're trying to help." Zenas said as she and Ijana finally made it to the mountain with Nozomi. Nozomi kicked and swung her arms at the two the entire way to the moutain. She had punched Zenas's face multiple times, leaving a bruise, and continuously kicked Ijana in the groin, slowing them down and causing them to take so long to get there.

"How are you helping by kidnapping me from a loving husband?!" Nozomi yelled trying to shake loose from the two modsouls' grip.

"We know he seemed like a loving husband, but we assure you that he was simply trying to use you." Ijana said as they took her to Ozan's quarters.

They walked into the opening, Nozomi still struggling to escape them, "Ozan, we've got her. She's struggling like hell, but we got her here." Zenas said as Ozan turned around and walked up to Nozomi and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Nozomi, you're safe here, safe from Ichigo Kurosaki." he said trying to calm her.

She stopped struggling a little, do to his calm and kind attitude, "What makes you think he ever presented any threat to me?" she asked, fear clear in her voice.

"When he used you a few nights ago." he answered. Nozomi blushed as she realized what he was talking about.

"Why did you watch?!" Nozomi yelled.

"Actually Shizuno watched and reported back to me." Ozan answered, Zenas suddenly realizing that her boyfreind had gone on that _volunteer_ mission.

"I am on his ass about this, where is he?! He killed Ichigo, he got the easy job, so surely he's here now." Zenas said looking up to Ozan, who made a confused face, and Nozomi made a terrified face.

"Actually, that's a very good question. Where is he? He never made it back." Ozan said, causing Ijana and Zenas to go wide-eyed.

"He's not here? But how? He should have been here hours ago." Ijana said in a panicked voice.

"We shouldn't worry, he's probably just dicking around like always." Zenas said as she walked out of the room, "I'll go find him."

Nozomi looked down at the floor with tears flowing down her cheeks and dripping onto the floor, "I'm sorry to say that its true, but yes, Ichigo Kurosaki is dead. Ijana, take her to her room and let her rest, and make sure she doesn't try to

escape."Ozan said, Ijana nodded and escorted Nozomi out of the room.

Suddenly a man with pale skin and brown hair walked into the room and stood infront of Ozan, "What do want, Daichi?" Ozan asked as the man stood before him.

"Ichigo Kurosaki isn't dead, he has captured Shizuno and will use Zenas to locate us. I ask that I can go warn Zenas and assist her in rescuing Shizuno." Daichi said lifting a cloth mask over his mouth and nose and lifting a hood over his head.

Ozan was surpised by Daichi's quick analysis, "Excellent observation. Of course, yes go and help them. Something tells me that you're right."

-Soul society prison-

Zenas searched the soul society left and right, and stil no sign of Shizuno, "Dammit, where is he?" she said when suddenly a hand touched her shoulder, causing her to jump, "Aaah! Oh, geez Daichi, you scared me half to death. What're you doing here?" she asked as she gathered herself for her brother.

"Shizuno is in the building we're standing on. Ichigo Kurosaki is also inside, so we need to be careful. I'll distract Ichigo and you rescue Shizuno." he ordered and dropped down to the ground.

Zenas rolled her eyes and followed him, "Sir, yes, sir. I can't believe he got himself captured." she said as her brother opened the door to see Shizuno in a cell. He sat there and idiotically waved.

Daichi looked at his younger sister and said, "Remind me what you see in him again."

Zenas simply looked down, "I don't know, I ask myself the same thing sometimes." she answered as they walked in.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not right here." Shizuno yelled.

"Shut up, Shizu. Daichi look out for Ichigo." she ordered as the walked to the cell with a knife and began picking the lock.

"I've got you now mother fu-! Aaah!" Ichigo yelled jumping out of nowhere only to be thrown into the wall by Daichi, "Ow. Where is Nozomi DAMMIT?!" Ichigo screamed.

"By now do you really think we're gonna give you the location of the person you used?" Daichi said watching Ichigo as Zenas opened the door to the cell and Shizuno walked out.

Ichigo began growling in hate and anger, "I, am, sick, of, hearing, you, idiots, say, that, EVERY, TIME, I, ASK!" he yelled, running at Daichi and slamming his head into the wall, breaking a hole in it. He spun around and kicked Shizuno into the wall, cracking it. He grabbed Zenas and her back to him and raised his zanpakuto to her throat.

Daichi and Shizuno stood back up to attack, but stopped when they saw the blade at Zenas's throat, "You feel that feeling at the pit of your stomach? You know what that is? Its the same feeling I get when Nozomi is hurt, in pain, crying, or even a little sad. So you can imagine how I feel when she's kidnapped by some cult or whatever you are!" he said pushing the blade even closer to Zenas's throat, so close to as cause her to bleed a little, causing Daichi and Shizuno gasp in fear, "But I'm not like you." he said letting Zenas go, who ran back toward her brother, "So I'll let you go with the girl, even though this may be my only chance to locate Nozomi. But know this, I let someone you love go with little more than a knick, the enemy that you percieve to be so cruel and abusive has done something that you aren't gonna." Ichigo said walking out of the building, even though it defied his instincts.

Daichi watched as Ichigo walked out the door, and turned back to his sister, "Are you hurt?" he asked looking at the small cut on her neck, "I guess your alright. Come on, we have to go back to Ozan." he said pulling her arm.

Zenas remained silent as they went home. She couldn't help but think of the words that Ichigo spoke.

-At the caved mountain-

Daichi, Shizuno, and Zenas reported to Ozan and went to their rooms. Zenas lied down on her bed and thought. Thought about the words that Ichigo said, _"Its the same feeling I get when Nozomi is hurt, in pain, crying, or even a little sad. The enemy that you percieve to be so cruel and abusive is doing something that you aren't gonna."_ they tortured her mind as she tried to sleep. She couldn't keep it to herself anymore, she turned to her brother on the other side of the room, "Daichi?"

"What?" he asked half asleep.

"Do you ever think that what we're doing is wrong?" she asked nervously.

"Don't talk like that, you know that we're only trying to protect our kind." he said more alert.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Zenas said, though deep down, she didn't really believe it.


	5. Tainted Modsoul

"I'm an idiot." Ichigo said putting his face into his hands as he sat on Byakuya's bed.

"Why would you say that, Ichigo?" Rukia asked as she sat next to him.

"Dammit. I had three of them, with my sword at one's throat. I could have used her to find Nozomi, and like an idiot I just let them all go!" Ichigo said running to the wall and slamming his fist into it. He panted in anger as he tried to hold back tears that were welling up in his eyes.

Rukia felt a pulse of sympathy as she saw a tear fall to the floor, "Ichigo... its not your fault. Its not in your nature to hurt someone that's helpless."

"But sometimes I wish it WAS!" he yelled punching the wall again. Rukia knew how much Nozomi meant to him, he had told her before they even married.

-Flash Back, 4 months ago-

"Am I missing anything? Let's see, suit, bouquet..." Ichigo said as he prepared for his date with Nozomi.

"Geez Ichigo, you guys haven't had a date in six months, and you never acted so excited about any of the others. Why are you acting like this, your usually so calm about these sort of things." Rukia said as she adjusted Ichigo's collar.

"I guess I got everything... Oh wait, where is it? Where is it?" he said searching his drawers.

"Oh calm down, your not missing anything." Rukia said as she watched Ichigo frantically searching everywhere.

"Oh found it. Anyway, its not just any date," he said turning around, revealing a small black box, "I'm gonna propose tonight." he said opening the box. It held a ring with a bright red ruby in the center.

Rukia stared at the ring with wide eyes and looked back up at Ichigo, "Oooh, Ichigo are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm more sure about this than anything. She helps me keep myself together when things go bad, you know." Ichigo said remebering when him and Nozomi visited his mother's grave.

-Flash Back...Again-

Ichigo and Nozomi entered the cemetery after a 20 minute walk. Nozomi decided to follow Ichigo out of boredom, although she didn't have any idea where he was going, and he didn't know she was following. They walked up the stairs to a single grave. It had a picture of a woman with orange, long hair. "Who's that?" Nozomi said out of nowhere.

"What the...? Nozomi? What're you...? Nevermind. Its my mother." he said as he looked down at the grave.

"Oh. When did she die?" she asked looking up at Ichigo.

"When I was a kid. Right in front of my eyes." Ichigo said, his voice croacking slightly, which caught Nozomi's attention.

"Um, how did she die." Nozomi asked.

"The damn hollow, Grand Fisher." he answered, his voice croacking even more, "You know, sometimes I wish I was the one who died that day, instead of her." he continued, tears welling in his eyes.

"Ichigo, you're crying." Nozomi said putting her hands on his cheeks and wiping the tears off his face.

"I know. Don't judge me." he said looking down at her. She hugged him to try and calm him. She let go of him and suddenly got caught in his eyes. They stared deeply into each other's eyes.

Ichigo leaned closer to Nozomi, causing them both to blush. Nozomi nervously began speaking, "Uh... Um... Ichigo?" she said as their lips met each other. Nozomi's eyes were wide as Ichigo kissed her. She told herself to break away, but she closed her eyes as she slowly fell into the kiss.

They finally broke the kiss and awkwardly looked at each other, both of them blushing a deep red. "So... uh... Nozomi?" Ichigo asked in an embarassed tone.

Nozomi, without looking directly at him, answered, "Yes?"

"Uh... would... you like to... uh... go... out... tonight?" Ichigo said slowly and studdering, blushing even deeper.

"You mean... like a date?" she asked.

Uh... yeah." he said nervously.

"Sure."

-End Flash Back-

Rukia never thought that they would start dating, or even get married. But here they were, in the middle of their marriage, trying to find out where Ichigo's kidnapped wife had been taken. Suddenly Byakuya walked in, "What are you two doing in my room?" he asked frowning at Ichigo, though somewhat surprised that he was crying against the wall.

"Fuck you, Byakuya." Ichigo said raising his arm and flipping off the dark haired man, causing him to grit his teeth. Rukia quickly stood between him and Ichigo and shook her head at Byakuya, telling him to leave Ichigo alone. He obeyed and simply walked out the door.

-In the caved mountains, treatment room-

"Ow! Hey watch it, that hurts!" Shizuno said as Zenas treated his wound from his fight with Ichigo.

"Well it'd be a lot easier if you stop fussing." she shot back as she added another stitch to the large cut, which she had stitched about halfway. It had been almost impossible with Shizuno complaining with each and every one.

"I'd probably stop fussing if it didn't hurt so much." he said to himself as she added another stitch. He liked that his girlfriend was as kind as to treat his wound, though he was sure she made it painful on purpose, "OW! What the hell, Zenas? You just stabbed my cut!" he yelped trying to take the needle away from her.

"Will you let me finish?" she said as she easily kept the needle away from him.

"Ugh, fine. But if you stab me again I'm doing this myself." he said, allowing her to continue. And as soon as he said that, "OW! Dammit, give me the damn needle!"

"Its not my fault it hurts so much. But thanks for finishing up for me." she said sweetly, kissing him and skipping out the door. Shizuno rolled his eyes and began stitching his own wound.

"What the he-, she was making it hurt on purpose!" he yelled to himself as he realized how much smoother he did it. He put six more stitches and finished. He walked out of the room and headed for bed since he hadn't really gotten any sleep since the jail house.

As he walked down the hall he could hear the echo of sobbing. He followed the noise and found Nozomi sitting in her bed with tears running down her cheeks. Shizuno walked up to her bed and sat next to her and put a hand on her back, "Hey. What's wrong?" he said, causing her to shoot dagger eyes at him.

Nozomi wrapped her fingers around Shizuno's throat and pressed down on it, "You BASTARD! You killed my Ichigo! Why? Why did you do it?" she screamed so loud it could be heard from around the caves, causing everyone to gather in the room.

Shizuno looked into her eyes, and suddenly became completely terrified. He didn't care how many tears were in them, her eyes showed a intense hate straight from the heart of the devil himself. "Why are you just standing there? HELP ME!" he tried to scream as the others poured into the room. Ijana and Daichi ran up and tried to pry her hands off of Shizuno's throat, which proved to be impossible.

"Ichigo's not dead! See look, he cut Shizuno's chest open." Ijana said removing Shizuno's assassin-like robe. Nozomi looked at the cut and studied it carefully. It looked deep as Ichigo's blade, same texture, same width.

It was one of Ichigo's slices alright. Nozomi smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at Shizuno and hugged him, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Nozomi said as she hugged and shook Shizuno.

"Uh... Okay... It wasn't exactly my choice, but okay." Shizuno said patting her back and standing up, and walking up to Ozan, who walked over to Nozomi.

"Nozomi. You must understand that you have to forget about Ichigo. He used you for his own personal gain." Ozan said putting his hand on Nozomi's shoulder and kneeling to match her height. Nozomi suddenly lost her smile and frowned, looking down in sorrow.

"I don't care what any of you say. You won't make me believe that Ichigo would use me. If anything, I use him! He does anything I want or need, and he doesn't ever ask for anything in return, he just gives and gives and gives, and when he isn't giving he's protecting me with his life and pours his heart out for me, you think you know anything about him, YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELVES!" Nozomi screamed, causing an eery silence. She panted with rage as everyone stared at her with wide eyes.

"Damn." Zenas said finally breaking the silence. Everyone slowly began leaving the room, Ozan silently walking to his quarters, thinking to himself.

"This isn't good. She more convinced than anyone we've tried to help. If we can't show her the truth, we may have to... I don't even want to think about it. We just have to hope that we can work it out. I woudn't want to do such a thing to another modsoul. But if it comes to it, then I'll just have to force myself to do it."

Ozan thought, as he imagined the last time a modsoul couldn't be taught, Zenas's sister.

Her horrified face would scar his mind for the rest of his existence.

Plz review, by the way, the next couple chapters may get a bit bloody, and with the blood of a certain few people, OC's to give a hint.


	6. People from the past

"Izara. I'm sorry but you simply refuse to accept that they are the enemy." Ozan said as he stared into the girl's wide, tear-filled eyes. She whimpered in fear of the inevitable death that would come upon her. Ozan ran his fingers through Izara's long, dark red hair, "Please don't make this harder than this already is." he said as she stared at the blade in his hand.

Izara stood up and ran toward the bottom of the hill. Ijana quickly stood up and ran after her. He grabbed hold of the collar of her shirt and dragged her back up to the top of the hill. She kicked and squirmed as she screamed, "NO! NO, NO, NO, NO! PLEASE! Ijana, let me go!"

Ijana knelt her down on her knees and restrained her hands so Ozan could finish this so their suffering would end. Shizuno had to hold back Zenas so she wouldn't try to save Izara. He had her in a full nelson and had to force himself not to let her save her sister, he had trouble enough trying to keep himself from saving her, "Shizuno, let me go! Please, I'll do anything! Just let me go!" Zenas yelled frantically, trying to kick Shizuno's knee out.

Ozan raised the sword and aimed it at Izara's heart. He glanced at her face and saw the tears flowing off of her face. He looked back at Zenas and saw the fuetal begging and crying, he couldn't take it. He could hear them crying and jammed his eyes shut. He thrusted the sword forward and heard the sound of steel penetrating flesh. He held back the tears and panted in sorrow and forced himself to open his eyes. He saw the blade jammed into her chest, the expression on her face was void as she stared at the sword. Izara's limp slid off of the sword, leaving a trail of smeared blood on it.

Shizuno let Zenas go and she dashed for her sister's bloodied body. Zenas slid her arms under her sister's body and lifted her up. She stared into her eyes and realized that it was true. Izara was dead. Everyone let the tears that they had held back flow down their faces. Ozan dropped the sword and fell on his knees, putting his hand on his face and watching Zenas mourn her beloved sister, "Its all my fault, I did this to us, to eveyone. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Zenas." Ozan said to Zenas as he reached out to her.

She slapped his hand away and continued mourning Izara, "Ozan, she deserved it. But from now on, if anyone ever mentions this ever, I will kill them." Zenas said as everyone forced themselves to stop crying and straightening themselves out.

"Its alright, we will never speak of this again." Ozan said to himself as he stood up and took the sword.

-End Nightmare-

Ozan shot up out of his bed sweating and shaking. He turned to the sword at the side of his bed and picked it up. He drew the blade from its sheathe. Izara's blood still stained into the blade, _"In her memory, I will never wash the blood off of this sword." _he thought to himself.

"Geez Ozan, I haven't seen you that scared since... Oh." Ijana said out of nowhere, suddenly realizing what he was so terrified of.

"Yeah, that won't be leaving my mind anytime soon. Now leave, I have too much on my mind to be speaking to anyone right now." Ozan said, sheating the sword and laying back down in his bed.

Ijana left the room and headed back to his bed, running into Zenas on the way, "Oh, hey Zenas. What're you doing up so late?" he asked

"Sometimes when I have a lot on my mind, I visit Izara's grave." she said walking past him.

Ijana followed her, "Do you mind if I come along?"

"Sure, why not?" she said as they walked out the entrance to the caves. They ran through the woods and past the Rukon district and up a tall, steep hill to the top. A cross with Izara's bow tie on it stood at the peak. the two reached the top and stopped to admire and remember the young girl.

Ijana looked over and saw Zenas praying. He could tell that Izara still was a part of her life in a way, "So what's on you're mind that made you come out here at this time of night?" he asked with his hands behind his back.

"Nothing that I'd trust you with." she answered, still praying for her sister.

"Why don't you trust me?" Ijana asked frowning at her.

"Because your just an idiot that no one can trust."

Ijana made a saddened face and hung his head, "Ouch. That... that hurt."

"I... I'm sorry. I just like to have a few moments of silence when I come here."

"Its fine, I'll stay quiet." Ijana said as he put his hands together and lowered his head, which made Zenas smile.

-Ichigo's hotel room in the soul society-

Ichigo lied on the bed, sleeping, dreaming about what they could be doing to Nozomi. Where they torturing her, slaving her, raping her? He didn't even want to think about the last one. He didn't want anyone to touch her that way. He sat up in his bed and looked at the clock. It read 4:00 AM.

He stood up and walked out into the hallway, "Why does this type of shit happen to me?" he thought to himself as he walked out the front door of the hotel. He walked down the streets of the soul society, pondering the time he and Nozomi went up to Sogyoku hill a few days before, just before she was taken from him.

He decided to walk to the top of Sogyoku hill to remember her. He walked up the stairs to the top of the hill, slowly remembering the good and bad times they shared, like when he saved her from dying when she tried to fight back against Inaba. That was to close of a call, he was lucky he could heal her with the kido that Hanatoro taught him.

Once he had reached the top of the hill he sat at the very edge and hung his feet of the ledge, gazing at the entire soul society, "Somewhere in there is Nozomi. But where? Where in the entire damn soul society could they have taken her?!" he almost yelled as he looked at the forests and buildings. He calmed himself by reciting a song from his childhood,

_"White walls around us,_

no light will touch your face again.

Rain taps the window,

as we sleep among the dead.

Days go on forever,

yet I have not left your side.

We can chase the dark together.

If you go, then so will I."

"That was beautiful Ichigo." someone said out of nowhere, causing Ichigo to hoot his eyes toward the direction of the voice.

"Huh? Ririn? What are you doing here?" he asked as Ririn walked behind him and sat next to him, she was in her human body.

"I heard what happened to Nozomi. Rukia came to Kisuke asking if he had any way to locate a modsoul and she told us everything. Have you had any luck in finding her?" she asked as she curled into a ball as she sat.

"No. But listen, you have to stay low for a while, or else they might kidnap you and the others, and assassinate Kisuke." Ichigo said seriously.

"Oh. Is that what happened to you?," she asked, Ichigo nodding in response, "I see. So what was that song you were singing?" Ririn asked trying to change the subject.

"My mother taught it to me. She said to sing it any time I feel hopeless or scared. Its a little dark, but somehow it works." Ichigo said staring into Ririn's eyes. He and Ririn had dated for a while before the arrancar's had come along. They were each others first kiss, but they had broke up after Ririn insisted Ichigo cheated on her with Rukia. He still thought she was beautiful, though he hated to admit it.

"Well its a pretty song. And I just realized something." Ririn said glaring at Ichigo and grinning.

"What?"

"Your a sucker for modsouls aren't you?" she said accusingly, causing Ichigo to blush and go wide-eyed.

"W-what?! No! Why would I be into modsouls?"

"Oh face it! Its so obvious. You never had a human girlfriend, and every time you have had a girlfriend it was with a modsoul. You just like how we can change bodies so when you get bored with one look, you can just switch us into another body." Ririn said mockingly.

"No! Shut up! Your just as bad as the people that took Nozomi!" Ichigo yelled remembering their continued accusations of him using her, and causing Ririn to gasp and stumble backwards.

"I-I'm sorry. I was just kidding around." she said placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Its okay. Just please don't do it again."

Ririn stood up and turned around, "I better go. Kisuke and the others don't know I'm here, I don't want the to worry. But before I go." she said as she quickly knelt next to Ichigo and kissed him. She broke the kiss and ran away.

"Hey, you can't do that! I'm married!"

"Oh whatever, your a cheater anyway!"

"Shut up!"

Review! You know you wanna. Just DO IT!


	7. Sudden Realization

"Let me go!" Nozomi shouted as Shizuno dragged her back to her room after her failed attempt to escape. It wouldn't have failed if Shizuno hadn't been returning from the soul society.

She punched him in the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward, "I'm sorry, but we can't let you leave until you've been rehabilitated." Shizuno said as he sat her down on her bed.

"What do you mean 'rehabilitated'?" she asked as Shizuzno rubbed the back of his head,

"I mean that we're going to try and bring you back to reality. Help you see that the soul reapers are not our friends." Shizuno responded, "We'll begin tomorrow." he said closing the door and locking it to make sure she didn't try to escape again.

He walked into his bedroom and lied down on his bed as Ijana entered the room and sat next to him, "So what has you so worried?" Ijana asked Shizuno, causing him to shoot up in surprise.

"Nothing. Just that she's pregnant, and that might lead to mood swings and shit like that." Shizuno said as he tried to sleep and prepare for the upcoming days.

-Anger-

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" Nozomi yelled as Shizuno and Ijana ran from her in fear. They both tripped out the door and crawled away as she slammed the door.

"You know those mood swings I was telling you about?" Shizuno said as he patted Ijana's back

"Yeah."

"Well this is what I was talking about."

-Sorrow-

"Hey,hey, its okay." Shizuno said soothingly as Nozomi cried out of sorrow of being away from Ichigo

"I just can't stand to be away from him." she bawled as Shizuno placed a hand on her back, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" she yelled, causing shizuno to snatch his hand away as she put her face in her hands, "Could you please let me go just for an hour or two?" she asked sadly.

Shizuno hated that she was expecting an answer, "Well... uh... y-you see... uh... No." he said nervously as Nozomi slowly turned her head and glared at Shizuno with deadly eyes. He slowly leaned away as she leaned closer to him causing him to whimper in fear.

She stood up and walked to the door and closed it, turning the key on the lock and kicking it through the crack at the bottom.

-10 minutes later-

Shizuno walked down the hallway into Ozan's quarters and knocked on the desk that he sat at. Ozan turned around and saw that Shizuno was covered in bruises and a broken swollen arm, "Dear God, what happened to you?!" Ozan said as he went wide-eyed and stood from his chair.

"All I really want to say is that I might need some help putting up a new door on Nozomi's room." Shizuno said as he stumbled slightly from having to maintain his conciousness.

"What happened to the door?"

"I was thrown through it. Oh and that reminds me, beware the monster that dwells in that room." Shizuno said just as he collapsed. Ozan simply shook his head as he watched Shizuno lying on the ground.

-Joy-

Nozomi hummed as she sketched a picture of Ichigo while she sat on the edge of her bed. Ijana walked in and sat next to her as she drew, "Wow, you're pretty damn good at drawing." he said as he watched her draw the man.

"Thanks. I've been practicing." she said joyfully as she added detail to the eyes.

"Well, you can draw way better than I can."

"You should check out my other drawings." Nozomi said, pointing at a small pile of papers. He picked them up and looked at the pictures with horror.

Most of them were pictures of him and Shizuno lying dead on the ground. Ijana quickly stood up and ran out of the room and slammed the door. He ran to Ozan's quarters and skidded to a dead stop in front of his desk, "Ozan, me and Shizuno are getting the hell beat out of us! You gotta have someone else do this."

"Sorry, Ijana, but your the only people that can do this at the moment." Ozan said as Ijana got down on his knees and begged.

"Please! Why can't you have Daichi or Zenas do it or something?"

"Zenas and Daichi are still stressed out about failing to convince Izara of the truth. They don't want another life on their hands." Ozan responded as he stood andpicked up a small book and opened it.

"Then can't you do it?"

Ozan flipped through the pages of the book, "I'm too busy searching for other modsouls in the human world that may need our help." he said showing Ijana the lists of names of modsouls in the book.

"Oh, come on. This is a bunch of bullshit!" Ijana whined.

"Get up and get back to work. I've already had this conversation with Shizuno." Ozan said looking back down at the book.

"Fine, but if I die I'm blaming it on you." Ijana said walking out of the room.

-Sogyoku Hill-

Ichigo lied sleeping on the top of Sogyoku Hill as the morning sun shown over the Soul Society. The red-haired woman walked up to him a knife by her side and knelt down to his vulnerable body and slowly shook him, "Hey, wake up! Wake up!" Zenas yelled as Ichigo tiredly opened his eyes.

His eye widened at realizing who it was and he jumped up, drawing his Zanpakuto, "Your that girl that I took hostage the other night aren't you?" Ichigo said lowering his sword slightly.

"Yeah that's right." Zenas said softly.

"Well then I guess you deserve a little payback," he said and, to Zenas's surprise, spread his arms and legs, "I'll let you take a free hit to any part of my body, though I would prefer you didn't kill me." he finished as Zenas stared in surprise.

"Wha...? No, that's not why I'm here. I want to ask you something."

"What's that?" Ichigo asked as he returned to his normal position.

"Well... Do you really love Nozomi?"

"Yes." Ichigo said simply.

"So then... What we're doing is wrong?"

"I wouldn't say that. It may have been right at first, but you simply lost sight of reality." Ichigo said reassuringly

"I see. Well, the other reason I'm here is so we can have a fight."

"A fight?"

"So we can have some revenge for both of us. It will be fair of course." Zenas said drawing her knife and getting into her fighting stance.

"Alright then." Ichigo said as he dropped his Zanpakuto.

"What are you doing?" Zenas said as she watched him drop the sword.

"I don't want you to die here. You haven't done anything I think you should die for." Ichigo said as he entered his karate stance.

Zenas raised a brow in interest and dropped her knife, "I said it would be a fair fight." she said as she jumped in the air at Ichigo and landed a kick to his chest and spun around for another, only for it to be blocked and spun for a third, which resulted in her foot being caught and she was thrown.

She managed to catch her balance and land on her feet. She attempted to sweep his feet from under him, but it was dodged when he jumped into the air. Zenas was surprised, he fought like he could read her mind. She jumped in the air to dodge a leg sweep, but was caught im mid-air and pinned to the ground. Zenas struggled to push him off of herself, but his weight was to much for her to lift.

"Damn, your good at this." Zenas said as Ichigo sat on her stomach.

"Its more like your fighting style is... familiar. Tell me something, do you know a woman named Yoruichi Shihoin?" Ichigo asked looking down at her.

"Yeah. But I'd prefer not to talk about it." Zenas said

"Why not?"

"No reason." Zenas said, her voice croaking and tears welling in her eyes.

Ichigo got off of her and she sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes, "What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.

"Before they began killing the modsouls, I used to train with her. I learned to fight from her, me and my sister. When they called us back, she tried as best she could to keep us safe, but when they finally took us she gave us up with almost no fight at all. We were saved by Ozan, our leader, and Shizuno, the green-haired man you fought." She stopped for a moment and wiped a tear from her eyes.

"Ozan taught us that they gave us up because they didn't care about us, but Izara, my sister, didn't believe him. She continued to visit Yoruichi and after a while she was caught in the act. Ozan thought that eventually she would give away our base of operations and get us all killed. So you know what he did?" Zenas said as tears flowed down her cheeks.

"What?"

"He had her killed. He executed her. And now that you tell me that the soul reapers have changed, I know that she was killed for no reason. She was killed for nothing." Zenas said as she held onto Ichigo and buried her face into his shoulder. He patted her back and let her cry as much as she needed. He knew what it was like to lose someone close to him.

-Caved mountains, Ozan's quarters-

Shizuno walked into Ozan's room and stopped at his desk, "You called, father?" he asked as Ozan turned around.

"Shizuno... I have some bad news." Ozan said lowering his head.

"What?"

"Its Nozomi. She just isn't accepting this."

"What do you mean?"

"She isn't accepting that Ichigo is the enemy. So... we have to..."

"Have to what?" Shizuno asked leaning toward him.

"We might have to... execute her." Ozan said looking away from Shizuno.

"I- wait, what? No! No you can't! You can't execute a pregnant woman! That's insane!"

"Its the only way, Shizuno."

"But she's pregnant!"

"That doesn't make a difference! I know she's pregnant. But pregnant or not, if we don't execute her, she will give us all away!"

"But...!"

"No buts! Now tell the others to prepare. She is to be executed tomorrow evening." Ozan said turning around.

Shizuno couldn't believe it. His father was going to execute a pregnant woman. Was this all worth it anymore, worth killing a woman for their own protection? No. No it wasn't.

Next chapter, lots of blood. Review please.


	8. Blood on my Hands

Shizuno and Daichi sat in Zenas and Daichi's room. Shizuno had came in to inform Daichi of Nozomi's execution, which was to take place in 8 hours, "So what did you want, Shizuno?" asked Daichi as he sat on the bed.

Shizuno nervously walked around the room as he answered, "Well... Father has given up hope of helping Nozomi. She... is to be... executed... this evening." Daichi went wide-eyed as he listened to him speak.

"What?! No! We have to stop him!" Daichi yelled in panic and grabbing the collar of Shiznuo's shirt.

"We can't! Its father's orders!" Shizuno said as he swiped Daichi's hands off of himself.

"Who gives a shit?! She's pregnant, she's helpless, you know this is wrong! I can see it in your eyes!" Daichi said as he shook Shizuno and pushed him down.

Shizuno nervously spoke as he sat up, "I know. But..."

"I don't care! If you don't help me save her, I will personally tear you limb from limb!" Daichi yelled in anger. But it was just in anger. He didn't want to hurt him, he just wanted to push him to do the right thing. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't do so if he really didn't help.

Shizuno stood up and wiped the dust off of himself, "Even if we could save her, how would we do it? We've both seen him fight. If we just freed her, he would catch her. If we tried to hold him off, he'd take us both out and still catch her."

Daichi walked over to the bed and grabbed a sword, "Simple," he said tossing the sword over to Shizuno, who caught it in midair, "but its risky. I will attend the execution while you go retrieve Zenas, and convince Ijana to help us. I'll distract him before he can kill her, and you get your ass back here with help. Then maybe we can beat him."

Shizuno was somewhat surprised, though he knew he shouldn't be. He, along with everyone else in the group, knew that Daichi could make a quick and accurate analysis in seconds. At this point it was to be expected that he could come up with a plan like that so fast.

Suddenly Shizuno realized something. He didn't know where Zenas was, and convincing Ijana to betray Ozan wasn't going to be easy, "Hey! Did you think about how long my job may take? It could take hours to find Zenas, and even longer to convince Ijana." he said in a strangely calm voice.

"I alone can distract him long enough for you to do both. Ijana feels the same way you do, and Zenas is in Karakura town. Now you know what you need, now go. You need to move quickly, but if you time it wrong, we'll fail." Daichi said with a somewhat worried voice.

"When should I begin?" Shizuno asked as he waited at the door.

"I say about an hour before her execution. That should be long enough." Daichi responded as he passed Shizuno and walked out the door.

"So... why are you so quick to save her?" Shizuno asked, causing Daichi to come to an abrupt stop.

He turned his head and looked back at him, "Because we don't need another situation like Izara." he said as he disappeared down the hallway.

"Yep. He's Zenas's brother alright."

-6 hours later, Karakura Town-

Zenas and Ichigo walked through the streets of Karakura town, both of them trying to better understand each other. Ichigo understood her like a she was his sister by now, but Zenas was utterly confused by him.

"So... you help people because you like them?" Zenas asked confusedly as she tried to understand why he would risk his life for a stranger.

"No."

"Because they're your friends?" she asked again.

"No."

"Then why?" she asked in an irritated tone.

"Because they're just helpless." Ichigo answered.

"What kind of answer is that? Why would you save a person that's helpless? What did they do to earn it?" Zenas asked annoyedly.

"They don't have to. A lethal threat earns it for them." Ichigo said, remembering all of the times he nearly died for just a single person, saving Rukia, crossing hell to save Orihime.

"But what if they've harmed you?" she continued to ask.

"It wouldn't matter." he responded calmly

"What if they hate you?"

"It wouldn't matter." he repeated slightly more sternly.

"What if they were the enemy?"

"It wouldn't matter!" Ichigo practically yelled, causing Zenas to jump.

She was utterly shocked by his answer, and refused to believe it. She completely refused to believe that any person could care enough to save the enemy.

She trotted in front of him and stopped him in his tracks, "You're a liar. Maybe you are the only person I know that cares about a modsoul, but you would never care about the enemy!" she accused as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

Ichigo had trouble not bursting out in laughter from her accusations, giggling and taking quick breaths while trying to hold them back.

"What's so funny?" Zenas asked in annoyance.

"You! Take a look around Zenas. Just yesterday we were enemies on the field, but now we're taking the time to get to know each other." Ichigo said as he giggled.

Zenas's eyes were wide as she realized that he was right. But she hated it. She couldn't bear the fact that she was being laughed at by him. She growled in anger and punched him in the stomach, causing him to gasp in pain and bend down and grabbed his stomach.

"Fine. I guess you're right. But don't laugh at me, because I won't be so kind next time." she said as she continued walking.

-Caved mountains, Ijana's room-

"Ijana. We need to talk." Shizuno said as he walked into the room. Ijana turned around from the display case that had his sword in it. It was his prized possession. It was the only blade of the group that had never drawn blood, but that was only because Ijana preferred to use two 10 inch knives.

"What do you need?" Ijana asked kindly.

"Well... we need you to help with a plan that Daichi and I have." he said nervously.

"What is it?"

"We have to stop Nozomi's execution!" he said quickly.

Ijana stood still for a moment, but answered finally, "I'm in."

"I don't care if you don't want to, we ne-. Wait, what?!" Shizuno asked in utter confusion.

"I was hoping someone would think the same thing. Come on lets go!" he said as he reached into the display case and brought out the sword and attached the sheathe to his waist and walked pass Shizuno.

"Next stop, Karakura."

-Seireitei, top of the hill-

Ozan and Daichi escorted Nozomi to the top of the hill to be executed. They stopped at the top and knelt Nozomi on her knees. Ozan looked over his shoulder to look at Daichi, "Daichi, where are the others?" he asked as he nervously tapped the hilt of the sword.

"They didn't want to attend, not after what happened to Izara." Daichi answered in his normal calm voice.

"I see, then why did you come?"

"Someone needs to attend. Its only respectful." Daichi said as he stood calmly behind him.

Ozan nodded in understanding and drew the sword. He turned to Nozomi and knelt next to her, "Any last words?" he asked sadly.

"I'm just glad that I can die knowing Ichigo could live on. I have no fear." she said smiling, a tear running down her cheek.

"You're a noble soul." he said as he aimed the blade at the center of her back. He cocked his arm back, ready to pierce her heart. Suddenly, just as he was about to strike, a hand grabbed his wrist and his face was met with an elbow. He stumbled backwards as a stream of blood came from his nose. He looked to see Daichi standing with his blood on his elbow.

"What is the meaning of this Daichi?!" he yelled in anger.

"You can't kill a pregnant woman." he said calmy as he entered his fighting pose.

Ozan dropped his sword and entered a fighting pose, "I don't want to kill you, but I will hurt you." he said as Daichi suddenly thrust his arm at him. Ozan dodged it just in time to catch his wrist and strike his elbow with a sharp, strong hit, breaking Daichi's ligament. He spun around and kneed Daichi in the stomach, sending him flying and rolling on the ground.

Ozan was a lot stronger than Daichi remembered. Nozomi was in shock as she watched the man fight for her life. Daichi simply stood up and spit out the blood from his mouth and returned to his fighting pose, "Is that all you've got?" he asked cockily.

"Not you too Daichi."

-Karakura, Urahara shop-

Zenas and Ichigo entered the Urahara shop, which Ichigo suggested they go to for an unknown reason, and found Kisuke sitting at the table with Tessai and the three modsouls.

Kisuke looked up and saw Ichigo with the young red-haired woman, "Oh, Ichigo, I know Nozomi's missing, but that doesn't mean you have to go looking for a replacement already." he said sarcastically.

"I'm not you old pervert!" Ichigo yelled.

"Oh, so she's available?" Kisuke said giggling pervertedly.

Zenas ran across the table and kicked Kisuke in the face, "Shut up, Kisuke! Don't you remember me? Ichigo, why the hell did we come here?"

Before Ichigo could answer, Yoruichi walked in from the door on the far side of the room, "What's all the racket? Oh, hey Ichigo." she said as Zenas stared in amazement.

"Yoruichi. I believe you know Zenas." Ichigo said pointing at Zenas.

The two stood in shock of each other. They stared at each other for 3 minutes before Zenas finally spoke, "Yoruichi, why did you do it? Why did you let me and Izara go with no fight. Like nothing?" she asked sadly.

"Zenas, I only did it to save you. They were going to kill you. But they agreed that if they kept you alive, they would take my life instead." she said as the two of them became teary eyed, "But now you're alive. You're alive. Where's Izara, maybe we can catch up together." Yoruichi said excitedly.

Tears rolled down Zenas's face as she dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands. Yoruichi wondered what was wrong with her, "She's not with us anymore." Ichigo said as if reading her mind.

"Oh, Zenas." Yoruichi said sadly. Suddenly the door burst down and revealed Shizuno and Ijana.

"Zenas, Ichigo, come quick! They're gonna kill Nozomi!" Shizuno yelled, causing eveyone to go wide-eyed. Zenas and Ichigo quickly stood up and followed tha two outside. Ijana opened a dangai and ran in. Shizuno waited for everyone to catch up.

Kisuke, Yoruichi and the others followed, "We're coming too." Ririn declared as they stopped behind Shizuno.

"Whatever, come on." Shizuno said as everyone ran into the dangai.

-Seireitei, bottom of the hill-

Everyone ran in through the forest and Rukon district as they heard Ozan and Daichi fighting. They exited the woods to see Daichi lying unconcious on the ground, beaten and covered in bruises with a large gash on his lip and a broken arm.

Zenas looked in horror of the sight of her half-dead brother. Ozan stood at the top of the hill with Nozomi directly in front of him. He picked up the sword and pointed it at Nozomi, "I'm sorry for the delay. But its time now." he said calmly as he aimed the blade.

"No!" Ichigo said as he and Shizuno ran up the hill as fast as they could. Ozan aimed the sword at her heart, Ichigo and Shizuno were halfway up the hill. Ozan cocked his arm back, Ichigo and Shizuno were 10 feet to his left and Shizuno bolted toward her.

Shizuno began sliding as Ozan thrust the blade and pierced the green haired modsoul's heart. Everyone stood quiet as they watched the blade. Even Ozan was wide-eyed as he stared. Suddenly Zenas screamed as she ran up the hill. The crimson liquid ran off of the tip of the blade as the lifeless body slid off of it and onto the ground.

The blade pierced the wrong heart. Shizuno pushed Nozomi at the last second, but took the blade himself as a result. He lie lifelessly as Zenas ran up to him and knelt next to him, "Shizuno! What the hell were you thinking?!" she screamed with tears running down her face.

"She was... right... the whole... time. This is... the least... I... could do... to repay her." he forced himself to say as he looked at the wound in his chest and the pool of blood that surrounded him, "You... go have... a good life... Zenas..." he finished as he let out a long shallow sigh and slowly closed his eyes.

Zenas watched him die and pulled him in to rest her head on his shoulder. Ozan stared in horror of what he did as the blade remained in his hand. Zenas stood and drew her knife and charged at him, "I'll kill you you son of a bitch!" she yelled as she swung the knife at his shoulder.

His reflex forced him to deflect the blade and dis arm her. He turned around and knelt, thrusting the sword behind him and skewering Zenas, blood bursting from the wound from the blade blasting out of her back and leaking onto the handle and onto Ozan's hands. The liquid spewed out of her mouth as she coughed it up from her lungs. He pulled the blade out of her and she fell on her back. She lied on the ground, staring at the sky and the clouds above her.

"Heh heh, I guess... I'll... meet you... in heaven... Shizu..."

So, yeah. It gets worse in the next chapter.


	9. Hope Fills the Heart and Fades Away

Daichi weakly forced his eyes open. He looked and saw Ichigo standing near Ozan. He looked down the hill to see a group of people at the bottom. Finally he looked at Ozan's feet and went wide-eyed in horror. Shizuno and Zenas lied dead on the ground, pools of blood surrounding them.

"ZENAS! SHIZUNO!" he yelled their names as he forced himself up off the ground and turned to face Ozan, "Ozan! What did you do?!" he yelled as he stared at their dead bodies.

"I... I... I don't... know!" he said in fear as he looked at the blood that covered his blade and hands. It was a good question though, what had he done? "Daichi. Why did you go through all of this just to save Nozomi? She would have gotten us all killed." he said as he stood up off of his knees.

"I don't care! No sane person would kill a pregnant woman by will!" he yelled as he charged at Ozan and launched into the air to deliver a kick to Ozan's face, causing Ozan to fly back and land on the ground with blood flowing from his ear and a broken nose. Daichi turned to Ichigo, who watched as the two fought, "Ichigo, take Nozomi and go back to your group. If it isn't to much for me of all people to ask, I hope that you stay nearby in case we need help." he said as Nozomi ran over to Ichigo and hugged him. Ichigo nodded and walked down the hill holding Nozomi.

Daichi turned back to Ozan, who sat up and lifted himself off the ground and dropped his sword, "Daichi. Why don't you understand?" he asked as Daichi ran and bashed him in the stomach with his knee.

"I was sure you were smarter than that, Ozan. Look at them," Daichi said pointing at Shizuno and Zenas's bodies, "you say letting her live would get us killed, but you alone have already killed two of us! Modsouls stick together no matter what the risk! What do you know? You're not even a real modsoul!" he yelled, causing Ozan's blood to boil.

-Down hill-

Ichigo reached the bottom of the hill and let Nozomi down. He hugged her and kissed her like a madman, "Are you alright? Did they hurt you? Is the baby alright?" he asked frantically.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." she said in response as she kissed him again, "You know I thought about you the whole time I was gone." she said quietly as she hugged him.

"Yeah. But next time be a bit clearer, because that could be taken wrong in **SO** many ways." he said in response, earining him a slap to the face that left a red hand print on his cheek.

"The situation doesn't seem to have changed you much." Nozomi said as she glared at him. Ichigo simply shrugged in response.

Ichigo turned to Ririn and Noba, "You two, take Nozomi and get the hell out of here. I have a favor to complete for someone." he ordered. They nodded and ran with Nozomi, who waved at Ichigo as she left. He turned to see Ozan and Daichi fighting, covered in bruises and blood.

"It sucks to think that I actually trusted that bastard." Ijana said as he walked next to Ichigo.

"So the man with white hair, he's your leader?" Ichigo asked, which Ijana responded to with a nod, "I see. Here's another question for you. Why didn't you ever come to take Kon, or Ririn or any of the others?"

"We only rescued the modsouls that seemed abused, mistreated, or threatened by their owner, if they have one. You seemed to be the only person we had seen that had befriended so many modsouls, which made us think that the soul reapers may have changed, until you married Nozomi. Then Ozan got suspicious. He had us spy on you for a time, at least for a month or two. That night that you and Nozomi slept together, it was the last night we were to spy on you. Ozan believed that you used her and had her taken from you." Ijana answered.

"But then, why didn't you take the others?" he asked again.

"Kon seemed to be treated the same way a friend would, and the group with Kisuke was cared for like family, so they were fine. There was no need to take them from safe havens." Ijana said as he looked back at Kisuke.

"I see. I have to go fight Ozan." Ichigo said as he drew his sword and ran up the hill.

"Wait," Ijana said, "keep this in mind. Ozan isn't a real modsoul, he's a soul reaper, the ex-luitenant of Squad 12 and Mayuri's ex-assistant in research and developement." he finished. Ichigo nodded in response, though he was slightly surprised, and continued to run.

Suddenly Ririn, Noba and Nozomi walked up to Ijana, "We have a problem," Ririn said panicking, "we can't get through the forest. Its like we keep running into an invisible wall."

"Well, suddenly I'm an information booth. Anyway, its a barrier kido that Ozan put up once we had our first execution. It's for honor reasons, no one leaves until the execution is over. We must show our respect for the executed. No one leaves once they've come here until Ozan says so." he told them.

"We're stuck here, great." Nozomi said as she sat down, "We're gonna have to live on a hill for the rest of our lives." she said as she began crying.

"What is wrong with her?" Ririn asked.

"Hormones."

"Oh." she said in realization.

"She's right though, if Ozan dies we'll be stuck here forever." Ijana said realizing that if Daichi and Ichigo lose, they lose. If Ozan died, they lose. There was no way the situation could end well at all.

-Fight-

Ozan picked up his sword and swung it at Daichi and Ichigo, cutting Daichi's arm and splitting a strand of Ichigo's hair. Daichi slid past Ozan and spun around to keep his eye on him, and Ichigo back flipped away from him. Ozan held his sword up in defense and waited for one of them to attack as they circled around him, slowly closing the gap between them.

Ichigo charged at Ozan and swung at his chest.

Ozan adjusted his sword and blocked Ichigo's attack. The two pushed against each other's swords, trying to keep the pressure on and make an opening. Daichi took the opportunity and kicked Ozan in the side of the head, sending him sliding and allowing Ichigo to cut his face. Ozan growled as he stood up, his blood boiling in rage. He charged at Ichigo and thrusted the sword at his head, missing. He swung it at Ichigo's chest, who raised his zanpakuto to block, but stopped halfway and swung at a different angle, cutting his chest. Ichigo backed up and winced at the pain of the cut.

"It feels good to get at least one hit in in the fight." Ozan said to himself as Daichi charged at him again, "I didn't want to hurt you, Daichi." he said as Daichi threw a punch at his face, "But now its just easier to kill you!" he yelled jamming the sword into Daichi's heart. Daichi stopped in mid punch. He grabbed the blade of the sword and slid closer to Ozan who was in amazement.

Daichi slid closer and punched Ozan in the face as hard as he could with the last of his strength. Ozan was spun around by the hit, but still held onto the blade. He turned back and looked the man in the eye, pulled the sword from Daichi's chest and violently kicked him in the stomach, causing blood to burst from his wound and him to fly backwards toward Ichigo.

Ichigo ran up to Daichi and knelt down, lifting his body off the ground and turning to face Ozan, "What the hell is wrong with you?! Even if he betrayed you, you should've given him a chance!" he yelled at Ozan, who simply ignored him.

"Sorry to ask yet another favor," Daichi said suddenly, "but he killed a person that is dear to me, _**the**_ person that is dear to me. So please... kill Ozan... as if he had... killed... Nozomi." he said with his dying breath as he took one last glance at Ozan. Ichigo closed Daichi's eyes, and stood to face Ozan.

"No wonder the soul reapers tried to kill off the modsouls. They're nothing but traitors!" Ozan yelled as an enormous amount of bright blue spirit energy exploded from him, "After all I did for them, they try to kill me! All of this was a waste of time!" he yelled causing the spirit energy to explode into an even larger size. Ozan's eyes began to turn to a bright red, and a blinding light flashed. The light quickly dimmed and revealed Ozan with elbow length hair and black skin with sharp spikes jutting from his elbows and up his arms. He had razor fangs and satanic bat wings shadowing his body.

Everyone stared in awe and fear. Ichigo stared in awe but looked back to Daichi and then to Nozomi, "Alright then, I'll do you this last favor, man who's name I don't know." he said as he turned to Ozan and yelled, "Bankai!" his zanpakuto and robe transformed.

"You think you can hurt me in that form?" Ozan said laughing, his voice sounded hollowfied and heartless, as Ichigo brought his hand up and put on his hollow mask, "No matter. You're of no concern to me now. I'm just gonna kill off that little green haired girl." he said pointing at Nozomi, and causing Ichigo to gasp in fear.

"I won't let you you freak!" Ichigo yelled as he flash stepped in front of him.

"I wasn't asking your permission, Ichigo. Get out of my way and I'll make it quick, delay me and I tear each and every little part of her body off as slowly as I can." he threatened.

Ichigo simply stood there and aimed his zanpakuto at Ozan, "I'd rather die than let you touch her. And besides, I have a favor to complete, so I'm not backing down so easily." he declared as the others stared in amazement of Ichigo's bravery and the pure evil that stood before him.

"What... the hell... is that?" Ririn asked shaking and turning to Ijana.

"Ugh, that's Ozan." Ijana answered in an annoyed tone.

"I guessed that much, I mean what happened to him?" she asked in the same annoyed tone.

"I don't know." he said plainly.

"Well to me it resembles some sort of hollowfication." Kisuke said out of nowhere.

"What makes you say that?" Ijana asked the blonde-haired man.

"That." Kisuke responded plainly as he pointed at the all to obvious hole in the monster's chest.

Ijana rolled his eyes and turned to see the worried look on Nozomi's face, "Don't worry. Even in that form, Ozan isn't gonna be able to beat Ichigo." he assured her. She smiled slightly as she watched the creature begin to make a move. Ijana doubted his own statement though. He knew nothing about what Ozan could do at this point.

"Sorry about your friends." Nozomi asked sadly as she looked at their lifeless bodies.

"Its fine. If Ichigo beats Ozan, then I know just what to do." Ijana responded, leaving Nozomi confused.

Ozan revealed claws that burst out of his fingertips and swung them down at Ichigo, who stepped out of the way and sliced the creature's hand off. Ozan stubled backward and grabbed his wrist and roared in pain. Ichigo stared in surprise at how easy it was to cut his hand off.

Ozan strained his arm and flexed his wrist and a strange black substance streamed out of his bone. it made a formation and turned to a solid and white material and shaped into a bone hand. More of the substance leaked out of the wound and wrapped itself around the bone and turned to muscle. More of the substance flowed out and turned to hardened skin.

Ozan laughed at the sight of his regenerated hand, "Ha ha ha ha ha! Even I didn't know I could do that in this form. I knew this would become useful one day. Ironically I thought I'd be using it to save the others, but now I think I'll just kill Nozomi. And once I'm done with that, I'll kill the rest of those obnoxious little traitors." he said. Ichigo looked back to the group of modsouls, "Think of it as a favor, Ichigo. Now you'll never have to deal with any of them ever again!" he said howling in laughter.

Ichigo cocked his sword back and yelled, "Getsuga Tensho!" and launched a fang of black and red energy at Ozan. Ozan simply swung his claws and diced the blast into nothing. He swung his bladed elbow and fired a barrage of spikes at Ichigo. Ichigo dodged left and swung his blade to slice the spikes that headed for him, suddenly noticing the some of the spikes headed for the group, and Nozomi.

Kisuke jumped in front of the group and smashed the spikes, "Don't worry about us, Ichigo. We'll be fine. Just stay focused on the fight." he yelled to Ichigo, who nodded and smiled in response.

"Look out!" Ririn yelled pointing behind Ichigo, who looked back to see Ozan's claws. They sliced Ichigo's back and caused him to fall to the ground. He weakly pushed himself off the ground and stood up in time to be tackled by Ozan. He was pinned with Ozan's knees on his shoulders. Ozan clawed at Ichigo's face and dug his claws into his chest, causing blood to fly onto the grass and cover Ozan and Ichigo to scream in pain.

Ichigo adjusted his zanpakuto and burried it into Ozan's side again and again until he jumped off and retreated, grabbing his wounds in pain and regenerating them, "Damn! If he keeps regenerating like that, I'll never be able to bring him down." Ichigo said to himself when suddenly he noticed something, _"His spirit energy is lower than it was a minute ago."_ he thought to himself, _"His regeneration power must take up some of his spiritual pressure."_ he thought as he was grinning. Ozan launched himself at Ichigo and wrapped his fingers around Ichigo's throat and dug his claws into it.

Ichigo grinned again and sliced Ozan's arms off, causing himself and Ozan's arms to drop to the ground. Ozan quickly regenerated his arms and laughed. Nozomi and Ijana watched closely and carefully, as if they had placed a bet on the fight.

"So what's your relationship with Ozan?" Noba asked out of boredom.

Ijana looked over to him, "He created me." he said plainly.

Noba and Ririn went wide-eyed in surprise and looked at him, "He's your dad?" they said at the same time.

Ijana raised a brow in confusion, "What? No. Well... I guess you could say that. He's the one that designed project Spearhead and put it into action. I was the first modsoul created. He made me by his own hand. When they declared that the modsouls were corrupt, he couldn't understand why. He took me and a book of all the modsouls created and fled the soul society. He vowed to save as many modsouls as he could, and assure they were safe in any other location. I guess now he knows why we were terminated." he said as he watched Ichigo slice Ozan's legs off.

"What is he doing? He's just waisting his time cutting off random parts of his body, he just regenerates them in a matter of seconds." Kisuke said to himself as he felt Ozan's spirit energy drop after he regenerated his legs, "Oh, I see! He's getting rid of his spiritual pressure so he can't regnerate!" he said again as he watched the rest of the fight.

Ozan stood and stumbled slightly and looked up at Ichigo, "As much fun as this is, I'm getting tired of this fight. I'll just finish it right here!" he yelled as he adjusted the claws of his wings next to each other and aimed them at Ichigo, charging a purple cero. Ichigo's eyes went wide as the cero quickly charged and fired at him. Ichigo dodged to his right as the cero flashed by, burning his arm until it was numb, and crashing into the invisible wall and causing a huge explosion that sent rubble and dirt flying into the air and a bright blinding light.

The light dimmed and the air cleared enough to see Ozan on his hands and knees with the black skin and wings cracking off of his body as he panted from exhaustion, "Where's Ichigo?" Noba asked as he searched the area for him.

The dust cleared more and Ichigo could be seen walking toward the group. Nozomi ran for him as he stumbled and fell to the ground. She wrapped her arms around him and lifted him up to hug him. Ririn gasped as Ichigo turned enough for her to see his left side, "ICHIGO! Your arm!" she yelled in fear as she looked at the bloody nub where his arm used to be.

Everyone stared in shock of his missing limb, "I...Its fine. Orihime... can heal it." he said in a weak voice as he looked over to Ozan, "I don't think he can fight anymore." he said laughing as Ozan struggled to pick himself up with his zanpakuto.

"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Ozan yelled as he failed to stand, _"I said I'd do it, so do it I shall!"_ he tought to himself as he raised his arm and slung the zanpakuto at the two.

"Look out!" Kisuke yelled as the shining piece of metal flew through the air and burried itself into Nozomi's shoulder, and down to the center of her stomach.

A clear look of horror took over Ichigo's face as he watched her fall to the ground, "No! No, no, no, NO!" he yelled as he fell to his knees and carefully took the blade from her body. He turned her over to look her in the eye. Her face was pale and had a look of pain as she bled out of the large wound, "Nozomi! Come on, stay with me!" he said panicking as he struggled to cover her wound and stop the bleeding.

"I... It... hurts... Ichigo." she said with a weak voice.

"You're gonna be alright. Just... just stay awake." he said frantically as the others gathered and surrounded them.

"Its alright... if I die... Ichigo. At least... you can... keep... living a... wonderful and... joyful... life." she said as she took weak, shallow breaths.

"Don't talk like that! You're not gonna die!" he yelled as he continued to panic.

"You can't... promise that. Please... don't make... a promise to me... that you can't... keep... before I die." she said as she coughed up blood.

"I won't I just... I just..." he said as tears began flowing from his eyes.

"Can't accept... my death?" she said as Ichigo nodded in response, "Don't cry... over me. You'll find... someone else." she said as blood leaked out the sides of her mouth.

"That's not the point. You can't just say that you have no meaning in my life." he said as his tears fell on her face.

"I just... don't... wanna die... knowing that... I broke your heart. I... love... you... Ichi... go..." she said as she let out a long breath.

"What? No, Nozomi! Don't give up on me! You have to stay alive. My life isn't worth it without you." he said frantically.

"Good... bye... Ichigo..." she said with her last breath.

"No... zo... mi" He said as he lowered his head to rest it on her chest. She had a void look in her eye, but died with a smile. It was true, and Ichigo had to accept it.

Nozomi Kujo was dead.

Please review this chapter and its sad, sad ending.


	10. Dear Agony

_"Dear Agony,_

_You've taken my mother, yet I live on. You made my life a living hell, yet I live on. You sent me through hell and back, yet I live on. But now you've taken Nozomi! My Nozomi! So I'll ask you one last time,"_

"Why does this type of shit keep happening to me?!" Ichigo yelled as he looked into Nozomi's empty eyes as she left the world. Ozan stared and began laughing sadistically as Ichigo carefully placed her on the ground, "Sleep well in Heaven, Nozomi." Ichigo said as he gently closed her eyes for her. He stood and looked down at her one last time before he looked up at Ozan who lifted himself off the ground.

"What's wrong Ichigo? Your wife leave you?" Ozan said as he laughed. He calmed himself as Ichigo stumbled to approach him, "My job here isn't done yet though. I still have to kill you, Ririn. And you too Noba." he said as he lifted his zanpakuto, "Then you, Ijana."

"Will you shut your fucking mouth and listen for a minute?!" Ichigo yelled as he stumbled over to Ozan. Ichigo obeyed and remained silent, "You protected the ones that were dear to you. The modsouls."

"Yes, but then they betrayed me." Ozan shot back.

"No! You killed them if they didn't accept you, you betrayed them!"

"No! I... I... you... you're... you're right." Ozan said in sudden realization of the lie he told himself, "Oh, God. What... have... I done?"

"My point is," Ichigo continued, "we both protect those that are dear to us. And if it cost our lives to do so," he said as he fell on Ozan, who held him up, putting his head on his shoulder and his remaining arm over the other, "then so be it."

"What else is there to be said?" Ozan asked as Ichigo picked up his zanpakuto.

"I can't forgive you for what you have done!" Ichigo said as he impaled Ozan on his sword from behind. Ozan arched backward as Ichigo forced him to stand, "But I can't forgive myself either," he said as he pushed the sword further, impaling himself on the sword, causing everyone to gasp in shock, "so I must leave this life as well."

"You're insane." Ozan said as Ichigo pulled the sword out and let him fall on to the ground.

"You're one to talk." Ichigo said as he fell to the ground. The two men lie on the ground with holes in their bodies.

"Well... I guess... you're right... though. Deep down... we're... kindred spirits... you... and I..." Ozan said with a long breath.

"We can... continue our... fight... in Hell." Ichigo said as the blood flowed from his wound. Ririn ran up to his body and lifted his head.

"I... had so... many chances... to find her,... and I let... them all go... like the idiot... I am." he said to her as he slowly turned pale.

"You're not an idiot. Don't say that." Ririn said as he let out shallow breaths.

"These people,... even though... they took... her,... they lost their... lives trying to... save her... but... she died... anyway. I let them down. If you go... then so... do I,... right... Nozomi...?" Ichigo said as he let out a final breath and a void stare took form in his eyes.

"No! Ichigo." Ririn said as tears began flowing from her eyes.

Ijana suddenly began running toward Ozan's body an fell on his knees and began searching it, "Where is it? Where is... ah ha! Here it is." he said as he pulled out a bottle of purple liquid.

"The hell is that?" Ririn said, tears still flowing from her eyes. Ijana ran toward Shizuno's lifeless body and poured the liquid on the hole in his heart. The hole slowly began to close, much to everyone's surprise. The wound closed completely and Shizuno shot up and turned over, coughing up blood and hitting his chest to force it out of his lungs.

He panted as he stood on his hands and knees. He looked behind him and saw the massacre of bodies and Ririn next to Ichigo and the group of people. He looked down at his chest, "Wasn't I... just dead?" he asked in a confused tone.

"It worked!" Ijana said as he ran over to Zenas's body and poured the liquid on her wound. She shot up the same way Shizuno did and began coughing up blood.

"What the hell... just happened?" she yelled as Ijana ran over to Daichi and repeated the process. Daichi simply turned his head over and spit up the blood and wearily stood.

"I remember that stuff." Shizuno said as he looked at the bottle, remembering the night Ozan saved him.

"You told me about it a few weeks ago, remember?" Ijana said as he ran to Nozomi's body and did the same thing again. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around.

She looked through the group, searching for her husband, "W... where's Ichigo?" she asked as everyone sadly looked at the top of the hill. She shifted her eyes to the top of the hill to see Ichigo's lifeless body in the arms of Ririn, his blood flowing onto her arms and the sleeves of her shirt. Her eyes were wide as she stared, "ICHIGO!" she screamed his name as she pushed herself up and ran for him, stumbling as she ran.

She fell on her knees and joined Ririn in holding him and crying, "Don't worry! I have this!" Ijana said as he ran toward them holding up the bottle of purple liquid. He knelt down and slowly poured the liquid onto Ichigo's wounds. Nothing happened.

Ijana put a confused look on his face as everyone patiently waited for the substance to take effect. Nothing happened, "Why isn't it working?!" Ririn shouted as Ijana began to panic and everyone gathered around.

"I don't know. Come on!" he responded as he poured more of the liquid on him, expecting it to work. He noticed that Shizuno nervously looked down, "Shizuno, why isn't this working? You know more about this stuff than I do." Ijana said as he calmed down.

"It's... only designed... to heal a modsoul's body and soul." he said carefully as everyone looked over to him.

Nozomi began breathing fast and frantically looked through the faces of the group, "Who did this to him?!" she yelled as she searched the many faces. No one had the heart to answer and avoided looking her in the eye, "Well?!" she practically screamed.

Ririn finally decided to speak up, "He took his own life because he failed and let you die." she said through tear-filled eyes.

Nozomi looked down in horror, "So this is all my fault. Its my fault that Ichigo's dead." she said as tears began flowing from here eyes faster.

"No," Urahara said, "its not your fault. It was his own decision."

"Its okay Nozomi. Its okay. It'll all be okay." Yoruichi said as she hugged and soothed Nozomi as she placed a hand on her stomach.

_"At least I have a little piece of him inside me."_

-The next day-

Nozomi slowly and sadly knocked on the door of Rukia's room in the soul society. Renji stood next to her with an equally sad expression, and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Try to be strong." he said as the door opened and revealed Rukia.

"Nozomi! You're safe...!" she yelled noticing their sad faces and that Renji was wearing a black suit and Nozomi was wearing a black dress, "what's wrong?" she asked.

"Go on, Nozomi. Tell her." Renji said as he nudged her.

Nozomi glanced at him and then looked at Rukia, "Ichigo is... Ichigo is... he's..." she forced out as she began crying and hugged Rukia, burrying her face in her shoulder.

Rukia looked down at her and then up at Renji, fearing the worst, "Ichigo... is... dead." he said letting out a sad sigh. Rukia put on a face of pure horror.

"You're... you're kidding right?" she asked in a panic as Renji slowly shook his head in response. Rukia stared in shock as tears began to leak from her eyes and fall from her face, "How... did he die?" she asked as Nozomi calmed herself down.

"Self inflicted wound." Renji answered as Nozomi let go of Rukia and returned to her original position.

"Why would he commit suicide?" Rukia asked sadly.

"Long story short, Nozomi died and he killed himself to follow her, but now she's back and he isn't." Renji answered.

"I'm so sorry, but why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"We're spreading the word, along with Ririn, Noba, Urahara, and Yoruichi. Do you think you could come with us?" Nozomi asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Rukia nodded and walked back into the house, "Let me tell Byakuya, maybe he'll join us." she said. The two nodded in response and waited for her patiently.

Moments later Rukia returned with Byakuya, "I have heard your news, and I agree to join you in telling everyone." Byakuya said, much to everyone's happiness.

They continued to tell the captains and close friends of Ichigo the terrible news. Each of them with the same horrified and saddened expression on their face, save for the more violent ones.

"So... when's the service?" Shuhei asked after the group told him the news.

"You're actually our last stop. We're going to set one up with the head captain at a captain's meeting today." Byakuya said in the same casual and cool voice.

"I see this hasn't affected you much." Shuhei said to Byakuya, who simply nodded as the group began the walk to the meeting hall.

-Meeting hall-

"And now we come to the death of Ichigo Kurosaki." Yamamoto said as he began the next part of the meeting. Byakuya stepped forward and turned to him, and Rukia, Nozomi entered through the doors, "Byakuya Kuchiki, you and Nozomi Kujo wish to prepare a ceremonial burial for Ichigo Kurosaki, correct?" he asked as Nozomi and Byakuya nodded in response.

"Yes, we would like to set the ceremony for-" Byakuya said

"Actually, I have something to propose." Mayuri interupted.

"This better be important, Mayuri." Yamamoto said as Mayuri continued.

"I would like the opportunity to take the Kurosaki boy's body to research and developement to study and hopefully dicover some valuable information for the Soul Society." he said as he rubbed his hands together sadistically.

"You prove a valuable point Mayuri." Yamamoto said as Nozomi and Byakuya gasped in surprise.

"Head Captain, you can't seriously be considering this insanity." Byakuya said.

"I'm not forgetting Ichigo's burial, he can be burried after Mayuri's experiments." he reponded.

"NO! I will not let you defile and evicerate the man's body." Byakuya declared.

"Why do you wish to prevent my studies?" Mayuri asked.

"It is a matter of protecting Ichigo's pride." he answered. Mayuri simply rolled his eyes at the predictability.

Yamamoto gave an annoyed sigh, "Fine then, we will have a trial tomorrow, you will tell us your reasons and then I will judge whether Mayuri can take Ichigo's body or not." he said as he dismissed the captains.

As the Captain's left Mayuri walked up to Byakuya, "May I have a word with you?" he asked as he gestured him to follow.

Byakuya turned to Nozomi and Rukia, "I'll meet you at the house." he said as he followed Mayuri. Rukia and Nozomi nodded and walked back to Rukia's house.

-the next day, 8 P.M.-

Nozomi and Rukia nervously waited for Byakuya to return with the results, "Do you think your brother will be able to win Ichigo's burial?" Nozomi asked as she tapped her foot on the tile floor.

"I'm sure he will, if it has to do with a person's pride, then he won't let anything get in his way." Rukia assured her as she paced across the room and back.

Suddenly the door opened and Byakuya entered the house. Rukia and Nozomi ran up to him anxiously, "Did you win, do we gat to have a funeral for Ichigo?" Nozomi asked quickly.

"I did what needed to be done." Byakuya said calmly.

"So you won?" Rukia asked impatiently.

"By my decision, Ichigo Kurosaki's body will be taken to Research and Development." Byakuya said.

Nozomi's eyes turned to the floor and she fell to her knees.

_"Soul Reapers really are heartless traitors."_


	11. Constant Reminder

Nozomi stood on her knees looking up at Byakuya with tearfilled eyes. He stared back down at her with no emotion in his eyes. "Why?" she asked as her tears hit the floor. He lowered his hand offering to help her up.

He frowned when she slapped it away. He walked passed her and met Rukia's tearfilled gaze. "You and her both will learn to thank me one day." he said at the sound of Nozomi sobbing. Rukia glared at him as he disappeared into his room. She walked over to her and took her hand. Nozomi stood up and followed Rukia outside. She took her on top of the building. The two overlooked the entire Soul Society while Nozomi cried into Rukia's shoulder.

Nozomi looked up at Rukia and asked, "Why does this have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?"

"I don't know. I just don't know Nozomi." she responded.

"Rukia?" Nozomi asked suddenly.

"Yes Nozomi?"

"After the child is born... can you do me a favor?" Rukia nodded suspiciously, "Can you take care of it and... kill me?"

Rukia gasped and stared at her in fear. "N... no Nozomi, I can't do that."

Nozomi had a disappointed look in her eye. "I understand."

A million worried thoughts ran through Rukia's mind. "So have you thought of any names for the baby?" she asked trying to change the subject.

Nozomi thought for a moment, "No, we haven't exactly had time to think of one." she said sarcastically.

Rukia rolled her eyes, "Well then... maybe we can think of one." she suggested, though it seemed Nozomi was way ahead of her. Rukia joined her in thinking of a name. The two let ideas roll in their heads.

Nozomi muttered something under her breath. Rukia looked at her curiously. "Azionois." she said knowing what Rukia wanted to.

Rukia smiled, "That's a good name. But what if its a girl?"

Nozomi thought for a moment before saying, "Ichira." happily.

Rukia looked at the moon before turning to her, "We should get some rest." she said as she stood up and took Nozomi's hand. The two headed to Rukia's bedroom and fell asleep on her bed.

-the next day-

Rukia opened her eyes. She looked around the room and noticed that Nozomi was nowhere in sight. She got up and stretched before walking outside. Byakuya was sitting in the kitchen eating a sandwich. Rukia glared at him before speaking, "Hey Byakuya." she said slowly. He nodded in response as he swallowed. "Where's Nozomi?"

He looked up at her, "She mentioned she was going to the World of the Living after she stopped by the Squad 4 barracks."

"For what?" she asked. Byakuya simply shrugged and continued eating.

Rukia grabbed her Zanpakuto and left. On the way there she thought about what her brother had done. What he had done to Ichigo, to Nozomi, to her. He wouldn't even give Ichigo the honor of a funeral, that was a new low, especially for Byakuya. What would he even gain for doing that? There was no point.

Suddenly she accidentally bumped into someone. "Huh? Oh, sorry Renji." she said softly before continuing her walk.

"Wait!" he yelled causing her to spin around. "When is Ichigo's funeral going to take place?" he asked.

Rukia paused at the constant reminders that Ichigo was dead. She had already forgotten that she, Nozomi, Byakuya, and Mayuri were the only ones who knew about the results of the debate. "There won't be one." she said sadly.

Renji looked at her confusedly, "Huh? Of course there will. Byakuya won, right?"

Tears of frustration fell down her face as she continued to walk. "If you want answers then go ask my brother." she said leaving him to stand in confusion.

She walked through the door of the Squad 4 barracks. There weren't many people there other than the nurses. There must not have been much hollow activity that day. She looked around searching for Nozomi or someone that could point her to her. "Can I help you with anything?" someone asked out of nowhere. Rukia jumped and saw that it was Isane.

"Geez, you scared the hell out of me!" Rukia said as she got herself together. "Do you know where Nozomi is?"

Isane nodded, "Right this way." she signalled Rukia to follow her. They walked down a long hallway. Rukia peeked into a few rooms. There weren't any people in them at all. "It's a slow day today." Isane said as if reading her mind.

They finally came up to a room where Nozomi lay in a bed out cold. Rukia gasped and ran to her side. Unohana stood across the room. "What happened to her? Is she alright?" she asked frantically.

Unohana turned to her and smiled, "She's perfectly fine. She just fainted from the excitement."

Rukia put a confused look on her face, "Excitement? For what?"

"She came in for an ultrasound of her child." Unohana answered. She moved to the side to show a screen, "She's having twins."

Rukia stared at the screen with a dropped jaw. She suddenly heard a small giggle from under her. "Isn't it great Rukia? I'm having twins!" she said smiled and nodded. Nozomi stood up and walked toward the door. She stopped and turned to Unohana, "Thank you, Unohana." she said happily. Unohana smiled in response as she left.

Rukia ran out the door to follow her, but Unohana stopped her before she could leave. Rukia looked at her in slight surprise, "Sorry to stop you, but I thought I'd tell you something. Nozomi's children are a lot further along than they normally would be."

Rukia looked worried, "What? Why? Are they gonna be alright?"

Unohana had a reassuring look on her face, "It isn't anything to be worried about, it's probably a result of that purple formula you used to heal her. She'll be fine along with her children. She'll be going into labor alot sooner than she expects."

Rukia smiled and nodded before leaving. She caught up to her and slowed down to match her speed. "So to Karakura now, right?"

Nozomi looked at her in surprise, "Byakuya told you?" Rukia nodded. "I'm going to my house to get something." she said.

"And what would that be?" a voice said from ahead of them. It was Shizuno. He had a large cross on his shoulder.

"None of your business, Shizuno." Nozomi said with her hands on her waist.

Shizuno frowned and then gave a friendly smile, "That's fair, I guess. I did lock you up and get you killed.

"So, what's with the cross?" Rukia asked.

Shizuno adjusted it to a more comforting angle. "Someone has to make a grave for the orange-haired bastard." he said with a frown.

Nozomi's smile fell slightly, but forced it back and waved goodbye. He waved back as the two walked through the gate and into the preseface world. They continued their walk for 20 minutes until they walked out of the dangai. They were at the edge of town. Nozomi looked around in confusion. "I'm sorry, I guess I overshot it." she said blushing.

"It's fine. Come on, it's this way, right." Rukia asked. Nozomi nodded and started walking. She took in all the familiar sights and smells that she had forgotten over the course of a few weeks. She had forgotten all the beautiful buildings and stores. Rukia looked at her and saw her smile slowly fading. It left her face faster and faster as she looked around. "What's the matter, Nozomi?"

She looked at Rukia with tearfilled eyes, "There's only so much that can keep me distracted. But coming back here, seeing all of this is reminding me that Ichigo is..." she couldn't force the rest out. "Nevermind, let's just go." they continued their walk through the large city. They finally caught sight of her house. Nozomi stopped for a moment to stare at the long awaited sight. They walked up to the doorway. Nozomi reached into her pocket and pulled out a key. She put it into the lock and turned it. She opened the door and walked in. She was finally home. She smiled and laughed and ran into her bedroom. She jumped into the air and landed on her back in the bed. She smiled and stared at the ceiling. Rukia sat next to her and smiled, glad to see Nozomi smile again, even though it faded away.

Nozomi put her hand on the side of the bed that Ichigo usually slept on. "So... um, what are we here for again?" Rukia asked trying to distract Nozomi from her sorrows.

Nozomi sat up and reached under her side of the bed. She pulled something out. It was her Zanpakuto. "This is what I came for."

Rukia looked confused, "And why did we come for your Zanpakuto?"

"Because... it is a reminder of my stupidity." she said resting her forehead on the hilt of the sword.

"Stupidity?" Rukia asked. Nozomi nodded, "What do you mean?"

Nozomi stood and stared out the window. "If I had taken my Zanpakuto with us, none of this would have happened. I could have saved myself, and kept this from happening."

Rukia let out a long sad sigh. She knew that the only thing keeping Nozomi from taking her own life was her unborn children. Nozomi wiped her eyes and stood up. "Nozomi... there wasn't anything you could do to prevent this from happening."

"Please save your pity." she said in response. She walked to the door and grabbed the handle when suddenl there was a knock. Nozomi hesitantly opened the door to see Ichigo's family. Isshin, Yuzu and Karin.

Yuzu waved at her, "Hi, Nozomi. We just came by to see if you guys were alright since we haven't heard from you guys in a while."

Nozomi placed a hand on her chest. Rukia came up behind her and placed her hands on Nozomi's shoulders. "Um... why don't we come and sit down?" she said pulling Nozomi into a couch and leading the rest of them into the living room.

Everyone took seats in the chairs and couches that were available. Yuzu looked around the room and into the other visible parts of the house. "Where's Ichigo?" she asked in a slightly concerned tone.

"Um... we'll get to that in a minute." Rukia said nervously. She didn't expect to have to break the news to Ichigo's family. She decided to give the best news first. "Nozomi's pregnant!" she exclaimed.

"Oh my god!" Yuzu yelled and threw her hands in the air. Everyone, especially Isshin, cheered for the couple. Nozomi gave a weak and petty smile.

"She's having twins!" Rukia exclaimed again.

"Geez, who knew you guys would get that busy while you were away?" Karin said sarcastically.

Nozomi let out a soft and quiet giggle and grinned. Isshin looked at her, suspicious of her not so happy mood. "Okay, Rukia. Now that we're through the good news, tell us the bad news. Why's Nozomi so down?"

Nozomi slowly lowered her head to hide her face behind her hair. Rukia took a deep breath and stood up, "While we were at the Soul Society, Nozomi was captured by rogue Modsouls. Nozomi was killed and because she... was killed, Ichigo... killed... himself."

Yuzu and Karin were the first to wear their saddened expressions. "Wait a minute, if she was killed, then wh is she right there?" Isshin yelled.

"She was revived with an elixer that heals Modsouls." Rukia answered.

Karin stood up and yelled, "Why didn't you use it one Ichigo." all while tears ran down her cheeks.

"We did, it only worked on Modsouls." she answered sitting back down.

They family sat there, letting the news set in. Yuzu had her face burried in Karin's shoulder. Tears could be seen running down Isshin's face. Nozomi couldn't bear to face them. She stood up, her hair still hiding her face, and said, "It's my fault."

Everyone looked up at her, "What do you mean?" Isshin asked.

"If I had taken my stupid Zanpakuto, none of this would have happened. It wouldn't have happened if I could defend myself, then Ichigo would still be alive, and you wouldn't have to be hearing this." Nozomi shouted. Everyone stared at her in shock of how much she believed what she said.

Yuzu walked up to her and hugged her. Nozomi looked down at her in surprise. Karin did the same and Isshin followed. "Nozomi, you're part of this family, and you can't tell me that you actually believe that. There isn't any possible way that you could have seen that coming. You were as in the dark as any of us." Isshin said.

Nozomi stared at him and smiled feeling reassured.

A few hours later they all left. Rukia and Nozomi sat on the roof of the house watching the sun set. "Another sun goes down that Ichigo is unable to see."

"At least now you see that it wasn't your fault that he met an end." Rukia said.

Nozomi gave a light nod. She looked across the town and suddenly stopped. "You see that hill over there?" she said pointing to a hill that turned to a cliff toward the west.

Rukia got a good look at it, "Yeah. Humans call it Violet Hill."

Nozomi smiled, "That's were Ichigo proposed to me."

"I hear a lot of people propose there." Rukia said.

Nozomi smiled, "I suppose I should have seen it coming then, huh?" she said. Rukia giggled and smiled.

Nozomi and Rukia turned around at the sound of footsteps. It was Renji. He walked up to them and sat next to them, "So this is were you live?" he asked. Nozomi nodded in response. "Nice place. I talked to Byakuya. After he told me what happened, I kicked him in the balls for you, Nozomi."

"Nice." she said while fist bumping him.

Renji grinned, "Yeah, but now I'm supposed to collect the trash for the next week." he said, causing everyone to laugh.

Nozomi stilled held her Zanpakuto. She layed it on her lap and stared at it._ "From now on, I promise to carry you by my side as long as I have something precious to protect."_


	12. Heaven Finds it's Lost Angel

Nozomi stood at the peak of Sogyoku Hill, overlooking the Soul Society. The cool breeze flowed through her hair. Rukia told her about how far along she was in her pregnancy. She was absolutely shocked, and wondered why she didn't tell her earlier. Suddenly someone put their hand on her shoulder and said, "Nozomi?"

Nozomi blinked and now instinctively slid behind the person and put her Zanpakuto to their throat. Nozomi suddenly realized that it was Renji. She pulled her sword away from his throat. "Uh... sorry!" she said frantically.

Renji checked his throat and put his hand up to put her at ease, "Its okay, I shouldn't have snuck up on you. Rukia told me how much you've been training, and I can see you've been taking it seriously." he said with a smile.

Nozomi smiled at him and nodded. "Uh-huh, I've been training eight hours a day for the past three weeks." she said happily.

Renji almost jumped when she said that. "Eight hours a day? Jeez, I don't even take that much time a week to figure out how I'll spend my days off!" he said, causing Nozomi to laugh. "Anyway, Rukia and Shizuno wanted me to tell you that they've set up Ichigo's grave."

Nozomi frowned, "Where?" she asked sadly.

Renji's smile faded too. "The place where you died." he said trying to lighten the mood.

Nozomi kept her frown and turned away from him. "Hm... that rings a bell." she said, to Renji's surprise, sarcastically before leaving the hill.

On her way to his grave, she put a hand on her stomach. She felt one of the babies kick. She smiled and giggled. She was due in a week, which made her more and more excited each day. It also kept her mind off of Ichigo. She was actually mad at herself for wanting to kill herself. She would be being selfish, not even considering what Ichigo and the others sacrificed to save her.

She could see the immense column of green light. It was the barrier that Ozan had put up. She almost shivered at the thought of the place. She tried to pick up the pace, but not so much that it would tire her before she got there. Shizuno, Zenas, Ijana, and Daichi had decided to make up for what they had done to her, and what it cost. They had even started helping out around the Soul Society by guarding the districts from any hollow attacks.

She was about halfway through the forest before she saw the large hole in the barrier that Ozan made with his cero. through it, she could see the cross on the top of the hill. Rukia was standing in front of it. She made it out of the forest and walked up the hill. "Hi, Rukia." Nozomi said quietly as she stopped next to her.

Rukia looked at her and smiled when she realized who it was. "Hi, Nozomi. I see you've come to visit Ichigo's grave." she said in a light tone.

Nozomi nodded before looking down at a bouquet of roses and a picture of Ichigo. She quickly wiped the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "It's... hard to believe he's only been gone for a month, it feels like I haven't seen him in years." she said while sitting down on her legs.

Rukia let out a long sigh. "I'm going to The World of The Living to take a walk around Karakura. Maybe even visit Ichigo's family. You wanna come?" she asked.

Nozomi shook her head, "No, I think I'll stay here for a while." she said with a smile.

Rukia nodded and left. Nozomi returned her attention to the picture of Ichigo. "Hello, dear. I'm sorry I can't join you where you are. But I'm due pretty soon, and I have to take care of our kids. We're having twins! Can you believe it!? Twins!" she said with an overjoyed smile. "We'll all join you some time. But I won't let your sacrifice go to waste. I'll live my life to the fullest, and I'll make sure the kids live the same." she said as tears began rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them off and her smile returned. "I just wish that you could come back."

Heavy footsteps trailed up the hill behing her. She looked back to see Shuhei. "We all do." he said before stopping next to her. "No one saw it coming, but I guess it makes sense that he killed himself."

Nozomi looked at him strangely, "What do you mean?" she asked tilting her head.

Shuhei chuckled as he and Nozomi sat down in the grass and said, "Well there wasn't anything else that could kill him!"

Nozomi simply looked at him sadly. Shuhei lost the smile quickly when he realized how she felt about his 'joke'.

Shuhei awkwardly looked around before saying, "Soo... you're having twins?" trying to lighten the mood.

Nozomi smiled and laughed, "Yeah, everyone's been asking me about it, you know, asking if it's true and what I'm going to name them."

Shuhei grinned. "Well, if you don't mind my asking, what would you name them?"

Nozomi quickly stopped and thought for a moment. "Uh... I don't know for sure, I only have one girl name, and one boy name, but I don't know the genders yet."

Shuhei had a puzzled look on his face and asked, "Why not?"

"Because I want it to be a surprise!" she said as if the answer were as obvious as the color of grass.

Shuhei rolled his eyes. "I should probably get going, I have to go train some recruits in kido." he said before standing up to leave. "Oh, and a few people might stop by to visit you, or Ichigo." he said as he walked down the hill.

"Okay." she said softly as she continued her visit.

A few minutes of talking with Ichigo went by, with no response of course. Nozomi almost considered that she was loosing her mind to grief and stress. She thought of how hard it would be for her to raise two kids on her own. Granted, she could probably get support from her friends and family, but money wasn't her main concern.

She was worried about how she would break it to them, or even tell them at all. The Soul Society, she wasn't sure when, how, or if she would tell her kids about the Soul Reapers, hollows and the modsouls. Should she tell them when they're children and let them accept it as their lives, or when they were older, so they wouldn't fear their new reality as much.

She reminded herself that she wouldn't have to deal with the problem, hopefully, for a long time. Suddenly she could hear footsteps and the sound of a little girl laughing. She looked back to see Kenpachi with Yachiru riding on his back.

"Well, well. Isn't this disappointing. He really is gone, huh?" Kenpachi said with a frown. Nozomi couldn't help but grimace at him as she nodded in response. "Damn. I really thought he'd stay alive long enough for our final fight to the death. But maybe I can still fight your kid. Hopefully he... or she, will be strong like him."

"_Kids_ actually." she corrected. Kenpachi and Yachiru looked at her confusedly, "I'm having twins. And, as Ichigo once said, you are not fighting my kids."

Kenpachi almost flinched at 'twins' part. "OH! So that's true? I thought that was a bunch of recruits making crap up!" he said scratching the back of his head.

"When are the little Ichis gonna be running around?!" Yachiru asked excitedly.

Nozomi smiled at her childish attitude, "Soon, soon." she said with a laugh.

"I just wanted to see if he really dead, so I'm outta here." Kenpachi said before turning and leaving.

"See ya later!" the pink haired lieutenant said cheerfully.

Nozomi liked Yachiru, but was disgusted by Kenpachi's bloodlustful attitude toward fighting.

A few more people had come and gone to visit him and try to comfort her. Some helped out, but most just reminded her of her time with Ichigo, and what she would do for just one more day with him.

One final person came walking up the hill. Nozomi didn't bother looking back since the more recent visitors weren't anyone she knew well. They stopped behind her and stared at the cross and then at the picture and flowers that had withered slightly since they were put there.

"Someone you knew?" the man asked. Nozomi froze at the familiarity of his voice. It was familiar to the point where she was overjoyed, but with a mix of pure horror.

"Y-yes, he was m-my h-h-husband." she studdered.

"What was his name?" he asked. The sound of his voice made her smile, and tears of joy and sorrow poured down her face.

"I-ichigo Kurosaki." she said as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes and face.

"That's funny..." his voice sent a tingle of hope and joy up and down her spine, "...that's my name."

She couldn't resist and turned to see that unmistakable head of orange hair. Nozomi shrieked with pure joy and wrapped her arms around his neck. Ichigo grabbed her and spun her around as the two laughed in joy.

He set her down while she used his shoulder as a pillow and let her joy-filled tears soak into his robes. She lifted her face off of his shoulder and took a moment to look at him before meeting his lips in a deep kiss.

Ichigo's hand moved down her back and then just below her waist and onto her butt. Nozomi broke the kiss and slapped him. Ichigo put a hand on his now red cheek, "Sorry, I got caught up in the moment again." he said with a blush.

Nozomi looked at him with amazement, "B-b-b-but how? How are you alive?" she studdered frantically.

"You can thank me for that." a voice came out of nowhere. Nozomi looked to see Mayuri Kurotsutchi.

"Huh? YOU brought him back?" she asked.

Mayuri nodded, "Uh-huh, by using a mix of the Soul Reapers' spirit pressure, and basic human anatomy understanding, I was able to mend the hole in his heart and get rid of the blood that filled his lungs, thought it took a few weeks."

"But, why... how?" she asked again.

"That word I had with Byakuya. I explained to him that I owed Ichigo a favor." he explained. Nozomi still looked confused. "Ichigo had involuntarily supplied us with sufficient amounts of his DNA and spirit energy. And you don't want to know how we got certain samples of his DNA." the couple looked terrified when he said that, "Yes, let's just say that Nemu had to get those samples."

Ichigo had a deep red blush on his face. "I feel so... violated." he said in horror.

Nozomi smiled, trying to forget what Mayuri just said. "The important thing is that we're back together. And, hey, maybe we can use Mayuri's new system to tend to patients at the Squad 4 Barracks!" she said excitedly.

"Oh, I don't think so." Mayuri said as he pulled out a small remote and pressed the one button on it. There was a sudden explosion from the Soul Society. "Now, you see, the research for such a system is gone now."

Ichigo and Nozomi looked at each other. "Please don't tell me you destroyed your Barracks." Ichigo said, thinking of just how insane the man was.

The mad man grinned, "Indeed I did, now there's no trace of what I did for Ichigo. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I've gone soft, now would I?"

The two gave long sighs and shook their heads at his stupidity. Nozomi looked up at Ichigo with glee and almost shouted, "Ichigo, we're gonna have twins!" causing Ichigo's eyes to widen. He picked her up again and the two were overwhelmed with joy.

Ichigo looked at her excitedly, "When are you due?" he asked, almost jumping in anticipation for the answer.

"Next wee... uh..." Nozomi's expression took a sudden one eighty.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"I think my due date just got moved up a bit."

"Huh?"

"I think my water just broke." she said trying to hide the panic. They looked down to see the liquid gathering into a puddle in the grass. Nozomi almost started screaming, "Aah... what do I do? What do I do?!" she started asking, still trying to hide her panic.

Ichigo tried to think fast, "We need to get you to Squad 4!" he said as he picked her up bridal style and began flash-stepping his way through the woods.

Once they made it to the Soul Society, it was nothing but gasps and confusion. People that knew he was dead were frightened, some were surprised, but the majority were overjoyed. People cheered as he past by them.

Rukia opened the door to Byakuya's house to see why everyone was cheering. "Hey! What the hell's going on?" she shouted as a certain orange-haired man zipped by her. She stared in the dirction he was headed. "I-ichigo?"

The two finally made it to the front doors of the Squad 4 Barracks. He ran in with and, without thinking, shouted, "Hey! Make way, my wife's going into labor here!" not even giving anyone time to realize he was alive.

Isane and Unohana walked up to them. "Ichigo. I see Mayuri's seen you've had a full recovery."

Ichigo looked at her in surprise. "How did you...? Nevermind, Nozomi's gone into labor."

"Oh my, the babies have come early. Please follow me." she said before walking down a hallway. She walked into a room where Ichigo layed Nozomi down on a bed. Unohana held a Hell Butterfly on her finger and asked, "Would you like to inform everyone about Nozomi giving birth, or should I?"

"You tell them. I'm not missing a moment of my kids being born. Oh, and don't forget to mention that I'm alive, please." Ichigo responded.

Unohana nodded before walking outside of the room. Ichigo grabbed Nozomi's hand. "Ichigo... I'm kinda scared." she said squeezing his hand.

Isane smiled, "It's alright to be scared, it is your first birth after all."

"Thanks." Nozomi said in appreciation of her reassurance. She let out a small groan of pain.

"Get ready to see your new family, Nozomi and Ichigo." Unohana said reentering the room and rubbing her hands together in preparation of the birth.

QUICK! Their kids are about to be born and I need your help. Head to my profile page to vote on whether Nozomi and Ichigo's kids will be both boys, a girl and a boy, or two precious little girls. Plus, if you have any name suggestions for them, you can let me know via PM, I will consider each and every name carefully. The poll will be open until august seventh, and then you will learn what you voted on.


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